SAN JOSE, Antique – It's all system's go for the opening of classes in 460 elementary and secondary schools in Antique.

"Teachers, educational stakeholders and schools in particular are eager for the launch of K to 12," said Assistant Schools Division Superintendent Angelita Ragodo in an interview.

This school year is the official year for the opening of K to 12 where Grade 1 pupils will be the first graduate for elementary level while Grade 7 or first year high school would be the pioneer graduate for the senior high school or Grade 12, she explained.

Despite some issues that beset its implementation, Ragodo assured the students and parents that DepEd is prepared to launch K to 12 to make the country's educational system aligned with international standard.

"We are also doing our best to prepare the physical facilities; parents, government agencies and other community groups took an active involvement to make the school ready during the school maintenance week or Brigada Eskwela," Ragodo said.

In addition, she disclosed that teachers assigned in Grades 1 & 7 both for public and private schools were trained during summer vacation for this purpose.

However, Ragodo admitted that there is a need for more plantilla positions for teachers.

She lauded the teachers under local school boards and noted that they are a big help to meet the ideal ratio of teachers to pupils per classrooms.

Ragodo said there are on-going construction of school rooms which in turn, would help decongest the overly-populated classrooms in the public schools in the province.

Likewise, accessibility to the schools was enhanced due to construction and concreting of roads and bridges and establishments of farm to market roads. This also paved the way for easy monitoring of schools, Ragodo added.

Ragodo reiterated the call for teachers and school personnel to welcome the students with a smile. This is line with the directive of DepEd to warmly welcome the children on the first day of school with happy faces.*PIA