ANHSAT badly needs classrooms, teachers

KALIBO, Aklan - A public high school here in Aklan’s capital town, Kalibo, just like other public schools, is not wanting for incoming students – but badly needs more teachers and more permanent and safe classrooms for conducive learning this school year.The school is the Aklan National High School for Arts and Trades (ANHSAT), and this has been the problem ever since this school came into being in 1999.
Opened in 1999 as an extension of Nalook National High School, this public high school became ANHSAT in 2005, according to Mr. Richard Flores, Principal I of this school.
Flores said that this school year, the number of interested incoming first year high school students is still surging, but the school cannot accommodate them all as ANHSAT lacks teachers and classrooms.
Flores said that presently, the school has 8 permanent classrooms and 33 temporary classrooms.
By temporary, Flores means that the classrooms are makeshift, with nipa thatch roofs and sawali/bamboo walls.
The permanent classrooms, built in 2005, were inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2006 during one of her visits to Aklan.
Flores said many requests had been made by the school for more teacher items and concrete classrooms, and this school year, they will be reiterating these same requests.
This school year, Flores said ANHSAT will only have 38 teachers, as others left – some had been given national teacher items and had to go to the area where the item belongs; some had been recalled by their mother schools as they were only detailed at ANHSAT; while others resigned because the compensation being received is not enough, coming only from the PTCA fund.
This school year, Flores said they were promised to be given two national teacher items, but the school badly needs – and has requested the provincial government for eight additional teachers to be funded by the Provincial School Board.
“Actually, we are only asking for replacements for the eight who left the school for many valid reasons. We were supposed to reduce the sections in school, but with the surge of enrollees, I guess we have to retain the number of sections, but we have to distribute the students equally to the different sections,” Flores said.
Flores also said that with this trend, the ratio of the teacher to students will be 1:65. The first year level will have 8 sections this school year, 8 for second year, eight for third year and 7 for fourth year.
More or less 1,900 students will troop to ANHSAT this school year, according to Flores.
“I don’t know why many students want to enroll in ANHSAT. We want to accommodate them all, but the school simply can’t absorb them all,” said Flores.
For his part, Aklan Rep. Florencio T. Miraflores, according to the principal, has informed them that several classrooms will soon be constructed for the school under the regular school building program this year.
Also, under the leadership of Mr. Flores as Principal, several single classrooms had been constructed under the Principal LED program, and possibly, more will be constructed.
Flores said under the Principal LED program, it is the principal who initiates the construction including the conduct of bidding, with funding directly coming from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
ANHSAT, said Flores, sits on a one-hectare lot donated by the Aklan State University Kalibo Campus, so there would be no problem regarding school building construction as the land is already titled.
The school, just like other public high schools nationwide, only charges very minimal miscellaneous fees, according to Flores.ANSHAT and the Regional Science High School are the only nearby public high schools here at Kalibo town proper. The rest are already in the barangays, and most high schools here in Poblacion Kalibo are privately-owned.