‘Neutral desks’ for all students get Senate nod
SENATORS approved on third and final reading a bill mandating all educational institutions to privide “neutral desks” to all students.
Voting 17-0-0 on Monday, the approved measure was House Bill 8654, otherwise known as an Act Mandating Public and Private Educational Institutions to Provide the Appropriate Armchairs to Left-Handed Students, taking into consideration Senate Bill 2114, otherwise known as an Act Mandating Public and Private Educational Institutions to Provide the Appropriate Armchairs to Left-Handed Students.
Rep. Cristina Roa-Puno and Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara authored the House and Senate measures respectively.
Angara said the bill aimed to promote equal development of students by requiring educational institutions nationwide to provide neutral desks to all students in both public and private educational institutions.
Currently, Angara said, left-handed students were left without a choice but to work with right-handed armchairs.
Studies show that a right-handed armchair does not offer left-handed students the same arm support that right-handed students enjoy, causing back, neck and shoulder pain to left-handed students.
Experts said the inefficient and awkward writing position that left-handed students must adopt in right-handed armchairs caused slower handwriting, placing them at a disadvantage on important timed examinations.
They said thousands of left-handed school children are struggling in the classroom because of a failure to meet their needs.
They estimate that between 10 and 15 percent of the population worldwide are left-handed.
Under the bill, educational institutions are mandated to provide neutral desks equivalent to 10 percent of the student population within one year from the effectivity of the act. The institutions will eventually provide neutral desks to all students.
The Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority shall be in charge of formulating the rules and regulations, including the administrative penalties for the non-compliance of the act.
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