DepEd focuses on health needs

ONE dentist is assigned for every 18,000 public-school students, a doctor for every 70,500 and a nurse for every 4,830.
This lack of medical personnel is the main reason why the health of public-school students has remained unexamined, resulting in the prevalence of dental problems and other diseases, according to the Department of Education.
The education department is tapping the help of private and government health professionals in its nationwide Universal Schools Health Maintenance Drive, which aims to examine the health and nutrition of Grades 1 to 3 pupils.
Each child is provided a medical and dental card that serves as health record. The health and nutrition information gathered under the program will identify children who are at risk, helping the department in plan school-feeding programs and other health interventions during the school year.
DepEd is working with the Department of Health, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and health groups and associations to mobilize communities, health-service providers and medical practitioners to volunteer their services for the medical drive.
The department said health problems are the result of poor learning outcomes and dropouts among pupils. Last year’s health check showed that among Grade 1 to 3 pupils, 82 percent had dental caries, 20 percent with acute upper respiratory infection, 17 percent with lice infestation, 14 percent with undernutrition, 7 percent with iron deficiency anemia, and 6 percent with impacted cerumen, or earwax buildup.
DepEd has forged an alliance with the DOH, Philippine Dental Association, Philippine Nurses Association, Philippine Pediatric Society, Philippine Academy of Family Physicians, Philippine Academy of Physicians for School Health, Philippine Association of Military Surgeons, Armed Forces of the Philippines Dental Society;
Philippine Women Dental Foundation, National League of Government Nurses, Fil-Chinese Dental Foundation, Philippine Society of Nephrology, Pediatric Nephrology Society of the Philippines, Centro Escolar University College of Dentistry, Civitan Philippines, Integrated Philippine Association of Optometrists, and the Eye Health and Safety Foundation.
The department said 1,841 non-DepEd dentists and 3,948 doctors and public-health nurses volunteered their services with a success rate of 71 percent for medical and 50 percent for dental check-up.
Director Thelma Santos of the DepEd Health and Nutrition Center said, “We are tapping the support of our partners in the private sector by coordinating with various health organizations. The two month health examination will be undertaken by private and public health professionals, in partnership with DepEd school health personnel.”
Acting Education Secretary Fe Hidalgo said the drive is part of the department’s Schools First Initiative.
“Our USHMD is just one of the many programs we have that showcases what community involvement can do to improve the lives of our people,” she said. --Jonathan M. Hicap

Teachers also want Mrs. Arroyo impeached

SCORES of public- and private-school teachers and university professors trooped to the House of Representatives on Thursday to sign the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo.
The “citizens’ complaint” charges President Arroyo with electoral fraud in the 2004 elections, violations of civil liberties and human rights and numerous acts of graft and corruption.
“Even if it has a slim chance of getting past Congress, we’re filing the impeachment complaint because we’re committed to exhausting every available venue within the democratic space to hold [Mrs.] Arroyo accountable for her numerous crimes against the citizenry,” said Antonio Tinio, chairman of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, who signed the complaint along with about 50 other teachers.
Many of the complainants were public-school teachers who served as precinct-level election officials in the May 2004 elections.
“As teachers who served in the 2004 elections, we have a moral obligation to find out the whole truth about the cheating that took place in the presidential election,” Tess Busadre, president of the Quezon City Public-School Teachers’ Association, said.
“We took great pains to ensure that elections at the precinct level were clean and credible, only to find that election results could be manufactured during the canvassing period, making a mockery of the people’s right to choose their leaders. We hope that through the impeachment the truth can come out,” the teachers said.--Jonathan M. Hicap

Barbo ranked last in PNU search for new president

By Jonathan M. Hicap, Reporter
THE newly appointed Philippine Normal University president, Lutgardo Barbo, ranked fifth and last in the screening process among the five candidates for the post, figures obtained by The Manila Times showed.
Based on the weighted scores, Dr. Ester Ogena got the highest with 84.82, followed by Dr. Twila Punsalan, 79.46; Dr. Rosa Maria Llanes, 72.61; Dr. Carolina Danao, 71.93; and Barbo, 69.73.
The school’s search committee graded the five candidates based on panel interview (35 percent), simulation exercise (20 percent), public presentation (20 percent) and profile appraisal (20 percent).
Resigned faculty said the search committee deviated from “generally accepted principles on statistics” to determine the final three candidates for the presidency. This was basis used by the board of regents to select the new university president.
In its formula, the search committee ranked each candidate by each standard, and added the ranks for all criteria to come up with the final three candidates.
Ogena and Punsalan got a score of 7 and were ranked 1.5; Barbo got 14 and was ranked third.
The faculty said, however, the committee should have determined the total score garnered by each candidate based on the percentile allocation for all the criteria before ranking the candidates.
Based on this formula, the top three would be Ogena, Punsalan and Llanes, respectively. Barbo would rank last.
In all the criteria, Ogena was number one in public presentation, profile appraisal and panel interview.
Barbo ranked last in the profile appraisal, fourth in the panel interview, third in public presentation and second in simulation exercise.
The board of regents upheld its earlier decision appointing Barbo as the new university president, which has a term of four years. It also affirmed the formula used by the search committee in coming up with the final three candidates for school president.
The board said Barbo “had all the qualifications,” including education and managerial experience.
Rep. Teddy Casiño of the party-list Bayan Muna has asked the House of Representatives to investigate the selection and the resignation of the university faculty.

Pinoy teens eat less vegetables, more fruits

By Jonathan M. Hicap, Reporter

FILIPINO teens eat fewer vegetable servings than the recommended daily allowance, although they consume fruits more than the recommended diet, a study by the by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute showed.
An agency of the Department of Science and Technology, the institute is studying the eating patterns of Filipino youth in the face of the growing popularity of junk food.
The study, done by Josefina Gonzales, was conducted among 200 students in seven public secondary schools and three public colleges in Manila.
Students generally regard fruits and vegetables as nutritious and full of vitamins and minerals, the survey showed.
Of the respondents, 50.7 percent ate fruits as snacks in school and 88.9 percent at home. Vegetables were eaten by 73.5 percent of the adolescents in school and 98 percent at home.
Females aged 13 to 16 ate more fruits, while males aged 17 to 20 consumed more vegetables.
“Serving fruits and vegetables several times a day [for snacks, lunch and dinner] and serving more than one vegetable at a time are ways recommended to increase adolescent’s consumption of vegetables,” Gonzales said.
She recommended parents and school canteens offer teens a variety of fruits and vegetables.

DepEd union bucks Representative Lapus as new secretary

THE Department of Education Employees Union is threatening to stage rallies nationwide and barricade DepEd’s central office in Pasig City if Malacañang appoints Rep. Jesli Lapus of Tarlac as the next education secretary.
Domingo Alidon, union president, told The Manila Times that they are opposing the appointment of any politician as education secretary.
Reports have surfaced that Malacañang is set to appoint Lapus to replace acting Secretary Fe Hidalgo.
The education department has been without a permanent secretary for a year since the resignation of Florencio Abad in 2005.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers and other groups are supporting Undersecretary Hidalgo, who is the officer in charge, to be the next department chief.
Several petitions endorsing Hidalgo have been sent to Malacañang but the Palace, sources said, is bent on appointing Lapus and is waiting for the proper time to announce his appointment.
Lapus is the chairman of House Ways and Means Committee and vice chairman of the appropriations committee.
Alidon said the DepEd post would be used by politicians to further their political career. He said the next education secretary should be an educator who knows the “ins and outs” of the department.--Jonathan M. Hicap

Puno cites reason for board action

By Jonathan M. Hicap, Reporter

CHAIRMAN Carlito Puno of the Commission on Higher Education on Monday cited “major policy differences” between CHED and the technical committee on nursing education, which led to the resignation of its members.
The CHED is set to appoint within the next three weeks a new set of nursing committee members following the resignation of chairman Fe Marilyn Lorenzo and six others on Friday.
The others who resigned were Carmelita Divinagracia, Amelia Rosales, Maria Rita Tamse, Remedios Fernandez, Zylma Sanchez and Glenda Vargas.
Puno said the group opposed the inclusion of Dr. George Cordero, the president of the Philippine Nurses Association, as member because it would be a “conflict of interest.” Cordero owns a nursing school.
Puno said the commission’s stand is that school owners and the PNA president should be included in the committee since they are also stakeholders in the nursing profession.
Puno also clarified that the CHED had not bowed to pressure from politicians and businessmen in not closing down schools whose nursing programs had a 30 percent passing rate in the board exams.
He said that the policy was established by his predecessor, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, and not binding during his term.
Puno pointed out that the policy raised several legal issues, adding that the board exam results should not be the sole basis for closing down a school’s nursing program.
The quality of faculty, facilities and researches should also be part of the standards, he said.
Puno said the Professional Regulation Commission should not include “repeaters” when computing the board-passing rate of schools.
He disclosed that a restraining order by a Dagupan, Pangasinan, lower court prevents CHED from closing down schools that failed to surpass the 30-percent mark.