Kristine destroys 223 classrooms
THE Department of Education (DepEd) said Thursday 223 classrooms have been destroyed, and 415 classrooms have been damaged by Tropical Storm Kristine. On the sidelines of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) Horizons conference organized by the University of the Philippines in Taguig on Thursday, Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara confirmed that nearly 19 million students in 37,000 schools were not able to attend school over the past two days. "That represents almost 37,000 schools," he said. On top of the classrooms, furniture and computers were damaged too, he said, bringing the initial estimate of infrastructure damage to P264 million. Among the areas with the highest damaged classrooms include Eastern Visayas with 77 totally damaged classrooms, the Bicol Region with 60 damaged classrooms, and the Ilocos Region with 25 totally damaged classrooms. Angara said the DepEd has a quick response fund for rehabilitating classrooms, but he was mostly worried about the effect of class suspensions in the school calendar, with many areas getting frequent suspensions. "We have collated the number of missed classes and how many days classes were canceled, and then how many days that kids had already made up, as it may come to a point that students have missed so many days that they may not recover," Angara said. To make up for lost time, Angara said that DepEd is open to implement several measures, including holding Saturday classes, to make up for the lost days — but he said that it is up to the principals and teachers. "We will leave that to the principals and the teachers on how they will integrate it with their schedules, as long as we are flexible because we understand they have their own limitations," Angara said. As of October 2, 976 classrooms from 308 schools across eight regions are being used as evacuation centers, including 654 classrooms in the Bicol Region, the heaviest hit area.
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
THE Department of Education (DepEd) said Thursday 223 classrooms have been destroyed, and 415 classrooms have been damaged by Tropical Storm Kristine.
On the sidelines of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) Horizons conference organized by the University of the Philippines in Taguig on Thursday, Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara confirmed that nearly 19 million students in 37,000 schools were not able to attend school over the past two days.
"That represents almost 37,000 schools," he said.
On top of the classrooms, furniture and computers were damaged too, he said, bringing the initial estimate of infrastructure damage to P264 million.
Among the areas with the highest damaged classrooms include Eastern Visayas with 77 totally damaged classrooms, the Bicol Region with 60 damaged classrooms, and the Ilocos Region with 25 totally damaged classrooms.
Angara said the DepEd has a quick response fund for rehabilitating classrooms, but he was mostly worried about the effect of class suspensions in the school calendar, with many areas getting frequent suspensions.
"We have collated the number of missed classes and how many days classes were canceled, and then how many days that kids had already made up, as it may come to a point that students have missed so many days that they may not recover," Angara said.
To make up for lost time, Angara said that DepEd is open to implement several measures, including holding Saturday classes, to make up for the lost days — but he said that it is up to the principals and teachers.
"We will leave that to the principals and the teachers on how they will integrate it with their schedules, as long as we are flexible because we understand they have their own limitations," Angara said.
As of October 2, 976 classrooms from 308 schools across eight regions are being used as evacuation centers, including 654 classrooms in the Bicol Region, the heaviest hit area.
