Investigating the Legal Ownership of Public Elementary and Secondary School Sites and Its Perceived Impact on the Development of Facilities in Selected School Districts in the Division of Quezon

This research investigated the legal ownership of public elementary and secondary school sites and its impact on the development of facilities in thirty-eight (38) public elementary schools and seven (7) public secondary schools in selected school districts in the Division of Quezon. The study probed the legality of the school site ownership based on the surveys through validated checklist questionnaire and interviews conducted by the researcher. It also determined its impact to the development of physical facilities of the respondent schools. Using descriptive research, quantitative and qualitative data were collected among selected school heads of the respondent schools. Frequency, percentage and weighted mean were used to analyze survey data while all the interviews were transcribed for analysis. The study revealed that the school site of all the not legally owned schools are owned by private entities or individuals and most of the legally owned school sites are owned by the local government units. One of the challenges encountered by school administrators in addressing the problems on acquiring legal ownership of school site was the source of financial resources to be used in the processing of documents for the schools that are established before the issuance of Republic Act (RA) No. 10964 or the Government General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2018 or the Guidelines on the Utilization of 2018 Funds for the Survey and Titling of Donated School Sites and Registration of Special Patents Transmitted to the Register of Deeds. Another challenge was the regular reassignment of school heads every five years which affect the continuity of the school site titling process.