Compliance of Public Elementary Schools in Safety and Security Services Based on School Size

Promoting safety and security of pupils is the utmost concern of school administrators aside from fostering holistic development of the learners where school size is being considered as factor that might influence the conformity for certain standard. This study assessed the compliance to Department of Education’s safety and security services of public elementary schools in the Division of a first class city in the Philippines. Quantitative-Descriptive type of research method was employed with 28 participating schools categorized into small, medium, and large as the subjects of the study. Findings revealed that public elementary schools in the area were established between 21 and 40 years ago. Most of the schools are located at the lowland areas and few in the highland areas of the city; most schools have 5,001 to 10,000 m2 land area occupied. Half of school-respondents have 1,001 and above pupils which is considered large size in population. Annual budget allocation from Maintenance and Other Operating expenses (MOOE) for safety and security is between P10,000 and below. Most elementary schools in the Division are compliant as observed by the respondents in most indicators and parameters under the school site, canteen services, water safety, sanitary facilities, fire safety, campus security and building security provisions pertaining to the DepEd’s Safety and Security Standards. Community and organizational factors affecting compliance is significantly higher among small size public elementary schools. Development intervention in the form of a training design was crafted to continuously improve and sustain the compliance of public elementary schools to standards.

Keywords – public elementary schools, safety, security, school facility and development