School Buildings Are Not Evacuation Sites And Shouldn’t Be Used As One According To Dep Ed. Chief
SCHOOL BUILDINGS – The normally followed procedure of going to nearby schools during times of disaster will now be prohibited, according to Dep Ed chief.
Evacuating at school buildings affects regular school days and schedules thus affecting students as well. In this year’s class opening, over 27 million basic Ed students are expected to attend their classes.
During the times of disaster, many students’ classes are affected because some of the school’s facilities are being used and occupied by evacuees.
Admittedly, we already got used to treat school buildings as evacuation sites during a natural disaster.
However, Department of Education secretary Leonor Briones, the tradition can not be prohibited.
She revealed the reasons behind her decision to stop this tradition in her statement:
“Itinigil na natin ‘yung practice na kung may mga evacuations na gagawin, gamitin ang school buildings tapos ang mga bata ilalagay sa tolda. [We should stop the practice of using school buildings whenever there is an evacuation plan and putting kinds in tents].
She also solicited for help from the local government to put up a muti-purpose hall/evacuation site instead of using the school buildings and facilities.
As of now, the school building that were affected by the previous disasters such as the recent earthquake strikes are being repaired.
The repair was made during the annual Brigada Eskwela where students, parents and teachers collaborate to make necessary adjustments and apply necessary repairs in the facilities.
After the recent disasters, this year’s Brigada Eswela also directed their focus on disaster preparedness.
Briones also talked about her plans for the repair even before she has the budget for it.
“Yung mga Build, Build, Build activities, mga repair activities, nade-delay nang konti dahil ‘yung pondo hindi naman immediately available. But in the meantime, inestimate na, tinitingnan na kung ano ang pangangailangan, so the minute the budget was approved, kilos kaagad.”
Those Build Build Build activities and repair activites. The budget for the project delayed for a while, because the fund isn’t always readily available. In the meantime, I am looking into the needs of this school, so when the budget arrives, we’ll tale action immediately.”
This is according to an article from GMA News.
That is all there is to it, at least for a while. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
