By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
As graduation nears in the public
schools, some if not many poor parents of those students who will graduate or
move up in Grade 6, Junior and Senior High Schools complained of the graduation
fees that run to hundreds of pesos.
Reports that come to my radio program
say that P900, P725, and P500 have been exacted by school principals and teachers
in high school, elementary and day care.
“Bakit pati sa day care may P500, e
iyong city mayor ng Dagupan subsidized already the barangay captains on that?”
posed to me by a mother who has a son who would be graduating at the City High
School.
Another parent Patrick Jurado
complained that his child was asked by his Grade 6 teacher at West Central
School in Dagupan City to pay six hundred pesos. Other parents I was told
coughed up seven hundred twenty pesos in the same grade.
Here’s Department of Education
Secretary Leonor Briones through Department Order No. 8 series 2017 on the
“No Collection Policy” and “Austerity Program” of the Department on the
graduates in elementary, junior and senior high schools in public schools.
“In line with the government’s
AUSTERITY (emphasis mine) program, graduation rite should be SIMPLE but
meaningful which encourage civil rights, a sense of community and personal
responsibility.”
“Reminding all public schools those expenses for graduation
activity should be charged to the School Maintenance and Operating Expenses
(MOOE) under its 2017 budget”.
“DepEd personnel should not be allowed to collect any graduation
fees or any kind of contribution. However, the Parents and Teachers Association
(PTA) may give DONATION in cash or in kind. Moreover, contribution for
the yearbook will be on voluntary basis only”.
When the school principal Valentina
Hortaleza and her staff and some members of the Parents & Teachers
Association (PTA) came to my station and justified their collection as
voluntary, I told her that a white toga including a cap is rented only for P50
apiece according to a toga for leased owner.
“Saan napunta ngayon ang P300 ng P350 na contribution your teacher
asked from each of the parents,” I posed to
the principal on the P350 graduation fee as the other P375 for the graduation
picture package, year book, corsage, and others was optional.
Hortaleza gave me the breakdown of the
other expenses where the sum would be spent. They are: Thanks Giving Mass held
in March 27, 2017 where stipend or payment to a priest and choir was included,
food, flowers, and offertory. Expenses for April 4 graduation are stage
decoration and hall tarpaulin, sound system to be rented, flowers like roses to
be offered by the pupils to their parents, leis and corsage, 675 mono-block
chairs, program and invitation, medals, plaques (for guest speaker and guests),
frames for the certificates, snacks of the graduates, toga, ribbon for
graduates, food for the guests, envelopes for the certificates, pentel pen,
transportation of railings and snacks for the volunteers, and fare.
With say 600 graduates based on the
mono-block chairs mentioned above multiplied with P350 contribution, granted all
were paid, that would be a P250 thousand collection for this elementary public
school.
If quantified with the P600 like those
billed to complainant parent Patrick Jurado by the Grade 6 teacher that would
be a whooping P360 thousand.
***
Since the D.O No. 8 of Secretary
Briones covers private school, she
should look at the Mother Goose Special Science High School in Dagupan City
that billed its graduating pupils and Grade 10 students P4,300 and P6,400 (including
the P900 graduation pictures) respectively. It seems those amount were unconscionable
if not atrocious unless the school has its reason why it billed them.
(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and
articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too
at totomortz@yahoo.com)
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