MANILA, Philippines -- The Quezon City government is set to start the repair and clean-up operations in all of the city’s public schools this week in preparation for the opening of classes on June 6.

Mayor Herbert Bautista said that the drive is in line with the “Brigada Eskwela” program of the Department of Education (DepEd).

He said that all pre-school classrooms should be repaired and renovated before school opening to ensure that all kindergarten pupils will have the necessary facilities this school year.

With 96 elementary and 45 secondary schools, Quezon City has the biggest number of public school students in the country.

The Quezon City School Board is expecting about 30,000 pre-school enrollees as it has plans to hire an additional 54 pre-school teachers to meet a 1:30 teacher-pupil ratio.

The city is also the leading student and teacher-friendly local government unit (LGU) for providing benefits apart from regular monthly salaries.

Its teaching and non-teaching personnel are among the best-paid educators in the country receiving supplemental allowance, longevity pay, quarterly rice subsidy amounting to P1,500, good governance incentives, Pamaskong Handog and service rewards.

Recently, Bautista granted a P500 across-the-board salary increase to the city’s non-teaching personnel in addition to their take-home pay and benefits.

The salaries of contractual teachers were increased last year to make it at par with national-paid teachers.

On orders of Bautista the city government has set aside some P140 million to purchase textbooks and other supplemental materials for all core subject areas to meet an envisioned 1:1 textbook-student ratio.

With the current DepEd ruling for a mandatory integration of pre-school children to elementary students starting this school year, Bautista has purchased kiddie chairs, tables and instructional materials to give the pre-schoolers a comfortable space for learning.

The Bautista Administration also provides a feeding program for severely malnourished public school children.

Balik-Eskwela is a national project of the DepEd which enjoins teachers, students, parents, and community volunteers in repairing and cleaning up public elementary and high schools.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is also preparing to deploy thousands of its personnel in school zones across the country on June 6 to ensure security and orderliness as millions of students troop back to classes.