The lack of classrooms and teachers is still a concern in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, school officials said on Monday, July 29.
But the first day of classes for school year 2024-25 on Monday was peaceful, Negros Occidental Schools Division Superintendent Anthony Liobet of the Department of Education assured.
In Bacolod City there is no shortage of teachers in the elementary level at public schools, but 163 are needed at the high school level, Lila Arro, DepEd-Division of Bacolod City education program supervisor, said.
However, 157 new items have been created to enable the hiring of high school teachers that will greatly reduce the shortage, she said.
They are in the process of recruiting teachers to fill the posts, she said.
The Negros Occidental Schools Division, on the other hand, is in need of 4,458 classrooms, its spokesman Ian Arnold Arnaez, who quoted Engineer Geronimo Ermio, said.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, in his message to the students on the opening of classes, said “please pursue your studies with interest and determination. The discipline and dedication you invest in your studies will be the greatest determinants of your success and future”.*