PRIVILEGE SPEECH OF DAVAO CITY
COUNCILOR EDGAR RAMOS IBUYAN , June 9, 2009
MADAM PRESIDENT, the past few days—between the opening and closing of schools—we have had the rare privilege of observing the close collaboration between the local government headed by our Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and Vice Mayor Sara Zimmerman Duterte and the Department of Education (DepEd) in providing opportunities for all to secure an education.
We are congratulating Mayor Duterte and Vice Mayor Inday Sara and the DepEd for this laudable effort, particularly in providing this opportunity to our out-of-school-youths, domestic helpers and adults who failed to finish their education but are planning to go back to school—without attending regular classes.
We are referring Madam President, to the Davao National High School Open Sunday High School Program, and the Alternative Learning System or ALS—which is implemented in other public schools—and vigorously pursued by the local government and DepEd.
The Open Sunday High School Program and the ALS are special programs of DepEd that would allow students to earn a high school education in Sunday classes without attending regular classes.
However, in the course of our representing Mayor Duterte or Vice Mayor Inday Sara in various programs—during the past several days—of the Davao National High School Sunday programs and ALS—we were able to discover several problems besetting this dual effort by DepEd and the local government to provide quality education to our out-of-school-youths, domestics helpers and adults planning to continue their schooling.
And these are:
No. 1 – There is a growing number of out-of-school-youths, domestic helpers and others willing to attend the Sunday schools.
No. 2 – There is not enough Sunday school classes to respond to the growing demand.
No. 3 – Sunday schools are overly populated with some classes taking in 90 students which is much more than the normally required 50 student.
No.4 – There is a dire need to add additional Sunday classes
No. 5 – There is a need for DepEd to hold Saturday classes
We are very particular, Madam President, about the need for holding Saturday classes—in support of the Davao National High School Sunday classes and the ALS—for reasons I personally gathered.
In the course of my representation of Mayor Duterte in various gatherings of NGOs—particularly the Visayan Forum—which is concerned with the plight of domestic helpers or kasambahay—the concern about educational opportunities for the househelpers was a primary concern.
Holding Saturday classes was suggested by the domestic helpers and the employers, as this would allow employers with more than one helper to send anyone of them either to a Sunday or Sunday class, and then allow a helper to help the household even on week-ends.
Again, Madam President, we would like to congratulate Mayor Duterte and Vice Mayor Inday Sara for leading the city government in a fruitful collaboration with DepEd in the mutual effort to provide quality education—through special Sunday programs—to our domestic helpers, out-of-school-youths and others willing to pursue an education in convenient way outside of regular classes.
However, due to growing demand and the lack of Sunday classes for all, we would propose that DepEd also hold Saturday classes to make our efforts more responsive, laudable and effective. In the proper time, Madam President, I will propose a resolution to this effect as we all together join hands for the sake of our out-of-school-youths and domestic helpers and others who are looking for opportunities to finish their high school education.
Thank you.
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