DepEd welcomes new law requiring schools to provide neutral desks
By AJ Siytangco
Published Aug 29, 2019 02:04 pm
By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
The Department of Education (DepEd) welcomed the new law on neutral school desks – noting that it will boost the agency’s five-year school furniture replacement program.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
DepEd Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua noted that even before the law was passed, the agency has already discussed the provision of neutral school furniture in 2017. The consultations of his office with teachers nationwide, he noted, “resulted in the decision of abandoning and doing away with armchairs.”
Pascua said that starting 2018 DepEd has “been providing new school furniture”— specifically tables and chairs – under the Public Schools of the Future framework. “One table and two chairs comprise one school furniture set,” he explained.
DepEd’s School Building Program, Pascua said, has already proposed a five-year replacement plan to replace existing armchairs in existing classrooms with the new school furniture design in 2018. “However, the approved funds allotted for school furniture are not enough for this endeavor,” he noted.
Given this, Pascua said that the passage of Republic Act (RA) No. 11394, the Mandatory Provision of Neutral Desks in Educational Institutions Act, is “very much welcome” as the new law which mandates the obligatory provision of neutral desks to all students fully supports the implementation of DepEd’s five-year replacement plan.
A great help for DepEd’s learners
Pascua noted that as stated in the law, a neutral desk means a table or an armchair that is suitable for both right-handed and left-handed students. This, he added, is the “exact description and intention of DepEd’s new tables and chair furniture set.”
Prior to the adoption of the new school furniture design, Pascua said that the DepEd’s Education Facilities Division (EFD) has been allocating two (2) left-handed armchairs per set of 45 armchairs or about four percent (4%) of total armchairs for learners per classroom.
“But the uncertainty of actual numbers of left-handed learners per classroom and per school would always result in either the lack of or oversupply of left-handed armchairs in a given school,” Pascua said. “This is one of the reasons that prompted the department to study the adoption of neutral school furniture,” he added.
Hitting two birds with one stone
Pascua also noted that the 1-table and 2-chair setup is adopted to address two other factors.
First is the need for “more flexibility, accommodation of multiple layouts, and appropriateness of furniture to be moved and organized to encourage more collaboration among learners, such as face-to-face group arrangements inside the classroom” and second is the need for a “wider platform for the proper and safe usage of computer tablets and laptops in the classroom.”
“These two factors cannot be adequately addressed by armchairs, even if they are neutral, further strengthening the decision to use tables and chairs instead,” Pascua said.
Pascua also noted that DepEd’s Digital Rise Program includes bringing computer tablets and laptops for learners’ use inside their classrooms and no longer in computer laboratories. “This enables information and communications technology (ICT) equipment to be used as daily tools and equipment in the learning and teaching process,” he added.
Replacing all armchairs by 2025
At the end of 2017, Pascua said that are 707,600 existing classroom. Given this, the five-year plan intends to replace 18,199,305 existing armchairs in a span of five years. “If we start this in 2020, we can have all armchairs replaced by 2025,” he said.
Pascua noted that a total of P80,949,440,000.00 would be needed to replace the existing armchairs since it would cost about P16,189,888.00 per year for the next five years. This, he added, is “on top of the regular allocation for school furniture for new classrooms to be constructed.”
Back in 2017, Pascua said that the cost of an armchair was P900.00 while the new tables and chairs cost P4,800.00 per set. “In a classroom setup, the cost of school furniture under the old design is P44,500.00 (45 armchairs, 1 teacher table, and chair), while the new design costs P114,400.00 per classroom (23 tables, 46 chairs, and 1 teacher table and chair),” he explained.
Pascua said that from the 2018 funds, DepEd “has procured and delivered 1,396,614 new tables and chairs for 30,412 new classrooms” and for 2019, “about 858,950 new tables and chairs are in the process of being procured for 18,734 new classrooms in 2,605 schools nationwide” – bringing a total of 2,255,564 new tables and chairs for 33,017 new classrooms.
“All new classrooms and new school buildings to be constructed for 2020 and onwards have corresponding numbers of these new tables and chairs,” Pascua said. “The proposed 2020 funds of the department for school furniture amounting to P4,833,515,000.00 would be able to purchase additional 1,943,546 tables and chairs for 42,251 new classrooms in various schools,” he added.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the RA 11394 to address the needs of left-handed students. The said measure mandates public and private schools to provide neutral desks to students.
Read more: New law requires schools to provide neutral desks
(MANILA BULLETIN)
DepEd Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua noted that even before the law was passed, the agency has already discussed the provision of neutral school furniture in 2017. The consultations of his office with teachers nationwide, he noted, “resulted in the decision of abandoning and doing away with armchairs.”
Pascua said that starting 2018 DepEd has “been providing new school furniture”— specifically tables and chairs – under the Public Schools of the Future framework. “One table and two chairs comprise one school furniture set,” he explained.
DepEd’s School Building Program, Pascua said, has already proposed a five-year replacement plan to replace existing armchairs in existing classrooms with the new school furniture design in 2018. “However, the approved funds allotted for school furniture are not enough for this endeavor,” he noted.
Given this, Pascua said that the passage of Republic Act (RA) No. 11394, the Mandatory Provision of Neutral Desks in Educational Institutions Act, is “very much welcome” as the new law which mandates the obligatory provision of neutral desks to all students fully supports the implementation of DepEd’s five-year replacement plan.
A great help for DepEd’s learners
Pascua noted that as stated in the law, a neutral desk means a table or an armchair that is suitable for both right-handed and left-handed students. This, he added, is the “exact description and intention of DepEd’s new tables and chair furniture set.”
Prior to the adoption of the new school furniture design, Pascua said that the DepEd’s Education Facilities Division (EFD) has been allocating two (2) left-handed armchairs per set of 45 armchairs or about four percent (4%) of total armchairs for learners per classroom.
“But the uncertainty of actual numbers of left-handed learners per classroom and per school would always result in either the lack of or oversupply of left-handed armchairs in a given school,” Pascua said. “This is one of the reasons that prompted the department to study the adoption of neutral school furniture,” he added.
Hitting two birds with one stone
Pascua also noted that the 1-table and 2-chair setup is adopted to address two other factors.
First is the need for “more flexibility, accommodation of multiple layouts, and appropriateness of furniture to be moved and organized to encourage more collaboration among learners, such as face-to-face group arrangements inside the classroom” and second is the need for a “wider platform for the proper and safe usage of computer tablets and laptops in the classroom.”
“These two factors cannot be adequately addressed by armchairs, even if they are neutral, further strengthening the decision to use tables and chairs instead,” Pascua said.
Pascua also noted that DepEd’s Digital Rise Program includes bringing computer tablets and laptops for learners’ use inside their classrooms and no longer in computer laboratories. “This enables information and communications technology (ICT) equipment to be used as daily tools and equipment in the learning and teaching process,” he added.
Replacing all armchairs by 2025
At the end of 2017, Pascua said that are 707,600 existing classroom. Given this, the five-year plan intends to replace 18,199,305 existing armchairs in a span of five years. “If we start this in 2020, we can have all armchairs replaced by 2025,” he said.
Pascua noted that a total of P80,949,440,000.00 would be needed to replace the existing armchairs since it would cost about P16,189,888.00 per year for the next five years. This, he added, is “on top of the regular allocation for school furniture for new classrooms to be constructed.”
Back in 2017, Pascua said that the cost of an armchair was P900.00 while the new tables and chairs cost P4,800.00 per set. “In a classroom setup, the cost of school furniture under the old design is P44,500.00 (45 armchairs, 1 teacher table, and chair), while the new design costs P114,400.00 per classroom (23 tables, 46 chairs, and 1 teacher table and chair),” he explained.
Pascua said that from the 2018 funds, DepEd “has procured and delivered 1,396,614 new tables and chairs for 30,412 new classrooms” and for 2019, “about 858,950 new tables and chairs are in the process of being procured for 18,734 new classrooms in 2,605 schools nationwide” – bringing a total of 2,255,564 new tables and chairs for 33,017 new classrooms.
“All new classrooms and new school buildings to be constructed for 2020 and onwards have corresponding numbers of these new tables and chairs,” Pascua said. “The proposed 2020 funds of the department for school furniture amounting to P4,833,515,000.00 would be able to purchase additional 1,943,546 tables and chairs for 42,251 new classrooms in various schools,” he added.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the RA 11394 to address the needs of left-handed students. The said measure mandates public and private schools to provide neutral desks to students.
Read more: New law requires schools to provide neutral desks