ILOILO City – The Department of Education (DepEd) has reported that Western Visayas is among the regions hardest hit by Typhoon “Tino” (international name: Kalmaegi) last week, with thousands of classrooms damaged and more than 1.9 million learners affected across the Visayas and nearby regions.
According to DepEd’s Situation Report as of November 7, 5 p.m., the storm’s impact on Western Visayas was significant, disrupting classes in several provinces including Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, and Antique, and forcing hundreds of schools to suspend face-to-face classes.
In Region 6 alone, numerous schools were repurposed as evacuation centers, sheltering families displaced by flooding and landslides in low-lying areas of Negros and Panay. The DepEd Region 6’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said monitoring teams continue to assess classroom and facility damage in coordination with local government units.
Across the affected areas, DepEd reported 3,478 public schools suspending classes and 424 schools converted into evacuation centers, with a total of 2,564 classrooms accommodating evacuees. Preliminary assessments recorded 2,156 classrooms with minor damage, 806 with major damage, and 391 totally destroyed — with many of the worst-hit located in Negros Occidental and northern Iloilo.
One of the most severely affected campuses, Pano-olan Elementary School in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, lost large portions of its roofing as strong winds and debris tore through the area.
With Super Typhoon “Uwan” (international name: Fung-Wong) now unleashing rains, education officials warned that already-saturated grounds and compromised school structures in Western Visayas could worsen risks in the coming days.
DepEd has allocated P32.51 million for clean-up and clearing operations in 577 affected schools and proposed P1.86 billion for minor repairs nationwide, or roughly P49,000 per classroom./PN
