KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/14 September) – Pupils and teachers of North Cotabato’s biggest elementary school have agreed to contribute small amounts for a sanitation drive that aims to counter the rising number of dengue cases in the school.
Each pupil of the Kidapawan City Pilot Elementary School will give 25 centavos per week and the teachers 10 pesos per month to pay for the salary of a garbage collector, Annabelle Dulay, one of the teachers, said.
The monetary contribution was approved during an emergency meeting of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA).
The PTA decided to intensify sanitation drive as the best measure to prevent the spread of dengue-carrying mosquitoes, Grade 6 teacher Darlene Soledad said.
The school has 108 teachers and 3,600 pupils this school year.
Data showed that of the more than 1,200 dengue cases monitored in the city since January this year, at least 10 percent of the patients were pupils of the school.
Based on data from the City Health Office, the Poblacion has registered the highest number of dengue cases in Kidapawan City. Some 400 cases were recorded in the city’s central district.
Earlier, the school received from the DoH in Region XII 70 rolls of Olyset net, an anti-dengue insecticidal net manufactured in Japan.
The school was the only recipient of Olyset nets in the entire province.
“Since KCPES is located at the Poblacion, the school received from the DoH-12 the Olyset Nets. Today, each classroom has an Olyset Net,” said Soledad.
Olyset net fibers are laced with the pyrethroid insecticide permethrin, a synthetic molecule similar to natural pyrethrin, which comes from a species of chrysanthemum.
The net will last five years.
Soledad said the net can be washed but should not be dried under the sun as the chemical as it will remove the chemical in it. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)
