PIA News release
Tipo-Tipo, Basilan (5 April) -- Scarcity of teachers in the primary and secondary schools had pushed the local officials to utilize municipal employees to teach here.
Mayor Ingatun Istarul in an interview said the situation is a result of the in-migration of families from the interior barangays in the locality.
With the present teacher to student/pupil ratio which is 1:100, the local government decided to utilize the employees a.k.a. "Para-Teachers" that have education background to teach either in the secondary or in the primary school, the Mayor said.
The local government was able to temporarily address the problem. However, the LGU has also planned to hire additional teachers for the coming school year due to the continuing increase of families coming into the municipality.
"These families were victims of insurgency problems, they have evacuated to the town proper to escape from the harm brought by the dissident terrorists", Ingatun explained.
He said hundreds of adults and children trooped into the town center and decided to permanently stay and live a peaceful life away from rebel encounters.
This has increased the number of students and pupils in the two (2) secondary and seven (7) primary schools.
Aside from hiring additional teachers, the LGU also planned to construct additional school buildings as well as health center facilities (with assistance from the national government) to further cater to the pressing needs of the people.
To date, the government has already constructed more than three hundred thousand (300,000) classrooms nationwide for a better learning environment of students.
Recently, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited the LGU to personally get on-site update of the Basilan circumferential road rehabilitation project particularly the 39 kilometer Maluso-Tipo-Tipo road section.
The road project which would be completed within 120 days would reduce cost and time travel for commuters as well as it would enhance economic activity within the province, Istarul said
More than seventeen thousand (17,000) kilometers of farm to market roads and 47,700 kilometers of main roads have been constructed by the government nationwide.
Hopefully the improvement of the main arteries in the municipality would bring peace and development in the area which is one of the priority programs of the government, Istarul said. (fnm/PIA-Zamboanga City)http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12&r=&y=&mo=&fi=p100405.htm&no=29
