Tacloban City –Without much fanfare, the Kalahi-CIDSS Project, a social protection program spearheaded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development is helping poor municipalities and barangays in the region respond to the issue of lack of classrooms this school year 2011-2012.
In the region, 75 day care centers and 106 school buildings were built. Northern Samar, 45 schoolbuildings and 30 day care centers; Leyte, 35 schoolbuildings and 8 day care centers; Western Samar, 20 schoolbuildings and 27 day care centers, and Biliran Province, two day care centers.
In Kananga, Leyte a second class municipality that implemented Kalahi-CIDSS in 2007 to 2009, six school buildings and two day care centers were built during the period. According to teacher Benjie Barnaha who first held classes in the newly-constructed Kalahi-CIDSS two-classroom school building built in 2008, the additional classroom is a big help. Yet, he adds that Barangay Kawayan Elementary School needs more classrooms.
Kananga Mayor, Elmer Codilla showed the tentative enrolment report for Kananga’s 2nd District. The Department of Education report revealed 4,533 enrollees in 13 elementary schools. Mayor Codilla added that there is also a sharp rise in the number of preschoolers enrolled in day care centers. The mayor concludes that the Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program requirement that pre-school children attend pre-school triggered increased attendance in day care centers.
Day Care Center Worker Jucylita Estrera said that she is now handling three sessions, two in the morning and one in the afternoon. With 84 enrollees in the Poblacion Day Care Center, there is no choice but to have three sessions. “Fortunately, the barangay has this nice day care center and if there was none, the children would have to go outside of the barangay or would have to be temporarily housed somewhere.”
Assistant Regional Director Jaime Eclavea of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Field Office Eight said that the additional classrooms and day care centers in Kalahi-CIDSS municipalities have helped ease the classroom shortage in barangays. “We are expecting more clamors for school buildings and day care centers when Kalahi-CIDSS is implemented in new Kalahi-CIDSS municipalities this year.”