ALL ABOARD. Baguio school division senior education program specialist Ellaine Cabuag (center) says that nearly 65,000 learners will troop to public school in the city on June 3. She said the Education and labor departments are currently monitoring child-laborers who have to work from dawn before starting their day in school to aid them and address the issue. Also in the photo are City Engineer Edgar Olpindo (left) and Baguio police chief Col. Allen Rae Co during the Oplan Balik Eskwela press conference at the Baguio City Hall late afternoon on Tuesday (May 28, 2019). (PNA photo by Pigeon M. Lobien)
BAGUIO CITY -- Indigent elementary school children, who are forced to work while going to school, would get school supplies from the Baguio division of the Department of Education-Cordillera.
“Some 125 pupils from the Baguio Central School (BCS) and Josefa Carino Elementary School (JCES) will be recipients of school materials from DepEd Baguio division personnel in an effort to help these kids who wake up very early to earn a living before going to school from Monday to Friday,” said Ellaine Cabuag, senior education program specialist of DepEd Baguio division, on Tuesday.
She said the children were monitored by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in the city and was informed about the situation of the children.
Both departments signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to help in monitoring child labor incidence in all Baguio public elementary schools, for intervention and assistance.
Cabuag said 78 learners from JCES and 48 from BCS, the country’s oldest public elementary school, would receive at least five notebooks, ballpens, pencils and pad papers in the gift-giving effort with help from donors.
DOLE's "Project Angel Tree" aims to stop children from being exploited into working at an early age.
Through the project, a component of DOLE’s Child Labor Prevention and Elimination program that started in 2001, an array of social services and supplies, work and training opportunities are made available to the parents of child laborers.
Through the project, parents are aided to provide for their family’s needs so that the children would not have to skip school or work to send themselves to school.
Children as young as six are forced to work to help their family in making ends meet by selling, do porter jobs, among others at the city market, to earn extra money.
“The kids practically work seven days a week, squeezing their studies during school days,” Cabuag said.
DepEd and DOLE have started monitoring child labor incidence in public schools and findings were based on teacher-advisers testimonies and the children themselves.
“Monitoring will continue to include all public schools in Baguio,” Cabuag said.
Meanwhile, classes for the 67 public schools in Baguio will start on June 3 as the “Oplan Balik Eskwela” was launched on May 27.
Cabuag reported that as of May 28, a total of 64,968 students have enrolled in public schools in Baguio -- 35,247 of them are in the elementary and 21,662 junior high school.
The number excludes senior high school.
She said that enrollment figures grow by at least 2.5 percent annually. (PNA)
