TACLOBAN CITY -- THE pupils of this city’s youngest public school continue to suffer from lack of textbooks, but for a different reason this time.

Money to buy the books is no longer a problem, with an American donor willing to buy all the books that the school’s children need. However, the donor representative tasked to order the books found out that most of the books they needed were either out of stock or up for revision.

The Diit-Mercyville Community School caught media attention last June 1 because its first batch of 33 Grade 4 pupils did not have a single textbook last year, and an average of three students shared one textbook in the lower grades.

As soon as the INQUIRER issue that carried the item came out, the newspaper received inquiries from an expatriate reader who offered to donate books to the school.

“I was saddened and humiliated to read that there was an entire school without books. There is absolutely no reason for kids in this country, in this day and age, to be going to school without books,” said William M. Johnson, an American executive who read the item in Manila.

Johnson, 46, is the vice president for international operations of Versar Inc., which he describes as a small, specialized defense, engineering and construction firm. He has an office in the Philippines although he works and lives mainly in war-torn Iraq.

Angela Tiangco, Johnson’s Manila staff, relayed the book donation offer in calls made last June 1 to Department of Education officials in Manila and Tacloban, and to Juliet Lugas-Lim, the teacher-in-charge of Diit-Mercyville Community School, located 8 km north of the city.

By June 2, Lugas-Lim had faxed to Versar’s Manila office a long list of books, of which she needed more than 1,100 copies for the pupils of her school.

Then the new problem came.

After contacting the publishers of DepEd textbooks in Manila, Tiangco said most of the listed books she ordered were out of stock or end of the line (up for revision).

The publishers would only print the ordered number of copies and it seems the DepEd has not placed an order for new textbooks for some time now.

In late 2004, the DepEd’s textbook program was at the center of controversy over accusations that many of its textbooks were full of factual, grammatical and conceptual errors.

After days of trying, Tiangco had only purchased for Johnson more than 300 copies, or barely one-fourth of the total number of books requested by Lugas-Lim.

These books will be turned over to the school on June 19, the birthday of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.

The day the news broke, Lugas-Lim got scolded by some of her superiors for “going to the media.”

But she also received words of comfort from fellow school heads who attended the seminar-workshop in Naval, Biliran, where she reported her school’s problems.

A surprise offer came from the city government of Tacloban.

For the first time since its establishment in 2002, the Diit-Mercyville Community School received assistance in the form of a fresh coat of paint for its two buildings, Lugas-Lim said.

But other problems remain.

The temporary building to house the first batch of Grade 5 pupils is far from finished.

Since there has been no addition to the four teachers assigned to the school, and due to lack of an extra room to accommodate its 200 pupils from five grades, one teacher handles Grades 2 and 3 by shifts, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon.

The school also does not have water and electrical connections, and the one toilet each for boys and girls are inadequate for its need.

“This country has every resource needed, and the inability of the young (and the future of the country) to learn in a proper and adequate learning environment is heartbreaking and frustrating. Whatever the cause, the remedies are there, and it really takes only a couple of things to fix these problems,” Johnson said.

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