At City Central, there are only 86 classrooms for 8,000 studes

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

SOME public schools in the city were forced to implement a scheme to maximize the use of classrooms which are not enough vis-à-vis student populations.
At the City Central School which has one of the biggest student populations in the region, officials implemented a “double-shifting” scheme for classes, according to principal Celso Pagulon.
The first shift is from 6 am to 12 noon while the second shift is from 12 noon to 6 pm daily.
Pagulon said the scheme has to be resorted to because of classroom shortage. The school, which has 86 classrooms, has an eight-thousand student population.
The West City Central School also resorted to a similar scheme because it only has 80 classrooms for six thousand students, said West City Central School principal Cynthia Yañez.
Over a million high school and elementary students trooped to various schools in northern Mindanao as classes opened yesterday.
Nerrisa Arabaca, education program specialist of the Department of Education (Deped) in Northern Mindanao, said of the 1,134,083 students enrolled in Region 10’s public and private schools, 816,853 are elementary graders while 317,230 were in the secondary level.
Arabaca said the Deped was expecting the figures to shoot up as a result of late enrolment.
In Cagayan de Oro, some 127,292 high school and elementary students trooped to public schools, said City Schools Division planning chief Jun Bayeta.
Of the 127,292, some 94,240 are elementary graders while 33,052 others are in the secondary level. Bayeta said the elementary and high school student population in the city is also expected to increase by next week.
Meanwhile, Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) operations chief Nonito Oclarit said the traffic flow was manageable despite the opening of classes.
Oclarit said the RTA focused on managing the vehicular traffic flow in areas near the Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High Schools (Mogchs), City Central School, West City Central School, and public schools in Nazareth, and Bulua because these were known traffic bottlenecks.
He said the RTA was expecting the traffic situation to worsen next week when the private schools open.
Oclarit said the RTA has created a special traffic roving team headed by Melchor Luna. The team is tasked to regularly check areas where traffic jams develop so traffic enforcers could immediately intervene.