DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/June 16) — Muddy pathways and wet pavements greeted students at the Sta. Ana Central Elementary School (SACES) here on Monday, the first day of schoolyear 2025-2026, a problem shared by other schools near the sea.
SACES principal Minnie Empasis said flooding, particularly during the rainy season, is a persistent problem “because when it rains, the water rises.”
Although water rises quickly, usually ankle-length, Empasis noted that it subsides after about 30 minutes. Still, she said, this disrupts regular school operations.
The other problems the school is facing are classrooms and buildings which need repair due to leakages or because the materials have been destroyed due to age.
To prevent disrupting classes when the rains come, Emphasis said they are partnering with private companies to help them elevate the pathways leading to the classrooms. She said they are partnering with companies whose corporate social responsibility includes helping schools.
Empasis emphasized that local partnerships are needed, especially in large schools with growing student populations, as government funding alone “cannot meet all demands.”
“It’s about budgeting the minimal resources that you have. So you need more support,” she said.
Empasis said the student population of SACES is 3,420 as of June 16.
On Tuesday last week, Education regional director Allan Farnazo said repairing school buildings and classrooms, despite the annual Brigada Eskwela campaigns, takes a lot of time due to the Department of Educaton’s “limited budget.”
He noted that 32 classrooms at the Felipe-Innocencia Deluao National High School in Sulop, Davao del Sur are still unused until now, six years after they were declared unsafe due to a series of above Magnitude 6 earthquakes in 2019.
He said it is “painful” to look at the situation of the school as if “there was no response” from the national government. The country has been under two administrations since 2019 – under Presidents Rodrigo Duterte who served until noon of June 30, 2022 and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. since then.
Farnazo said that since 2019 students have been “forced to hold classes on the side of the road. And it’s been five years… because these classrooms, there are damages, holes brought by the earthquake.” (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
