We just finished the inspection just to see how the preparations are going for pasukan next week. Marami tayong – more or less ang bilang natin 27 million ang papasok na bata sa eskwela.

So, we have looked… Maganda naman. Siyempre the teachers are always there to help. Nandiyan ang mga parents, nagtutulungan talaga sila.

We hired 20,000 new teachers so that we have more teachers and also so we can reduce the load on teachers sa mga administrative duties.

So, ‘yung mga sa inspeksyon namin, one of the… Alam niyo ba ‘yung ibang nakita namin na school building, Marcos-type school building pa. Ang Marcos-type school building was supposed to be replaced between 20 and 30 years.

Ang life niyan is 20 to 30 years. Pero ayan at least mabuti na lang at nagagamit pa. But we really have to look at the rehabilitation of many of them.

One of the things that I noticed are the bathrooms. Kailangan na kailangan natin linisin at pagandahin ang mga bathroom. Hindi naman mahirap gawin ‘yun except ang problema sa mga pinuntahan naming eskwela, walang tubig. Kaya ‘yun ang titingnan namin nang mabuti. Kung saan dapat manggaling ‘yung tubig. Bakit walang tubig at nagbabayad naman sila para sa kanilang water supply.

So, for me, basic ‘yan eh. Kasi pati ‘yung health nung bata natatamaan eh. Magkakasakit ‘yan kung hindi malinis ang mga pinupuntahan nilang mga bathroom. Kaya kawawa naman.

So, that’s one of the areas that we are really going to focus on – just on the health and safety of the kids. Of course, that’s the most basic and most important thing that we have to do.

All right. But otherwise, I’m very happy that we are doing a better job, I think, in preparing for the school year. And everybody has already been enrolled into this effort.

Hindi lamang ang DepEd, kundi lahat ng mga iba’t ibang department. We are all onboard here to do and supply and provide whatever it is that our school children need.

And that’s why we are here today.

So, that’s it. Thank you. Maraming salamat.

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