41 new classrooms completed in Leyte in 2010

By Provincial Media Relations Center
January 11, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Addressing the need for more classrooms among public schools, the provincial government of Leyte reports it managed to put up a total of 41 new classrooms in various elementary and secondary schools in the province.

The school buildings are units of one classroom, two-classroom, three-classroom and even two-storey buildings.

The 41 classrooms completely implemented in 2010 included barangay elementary schools in Alangalang, Palo, Burauen, Carigara, Dulag, Leyte, Tabango, Kananga, Palompon, Abuyog, Calubian, Babatngon, Tolosa, Kananga, Matag-ob and Villaba.

Secondary public school buildings were also completed at the Consuegra National High School in Leyte town, Calubian High School in Dulag, Hindang National High School in Hindang, Polahongon National High School in Mahaplag, Alangalang National High School in Alangalang, Palo National High School in Palo and to include a 3-classroom building at the Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) Dulag Campus in Dulag.

Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla said the province is presently prioritizing schools identified by the Department of Education as ‘red flags’, which means that the student-classroom ratio is beyond the ideal set by the education department.

“There are still many schools in the province identified as ‘red flags’ and these are the ones we are going to prioritize this 2011,” Gov. Petilla said.

These projects cost the provincial government millions in fund to improve the school infrastructure that is continuously increasing in student population.

As it is, DepEd projected the classroom shortage will jump from 170,000 in 2011 to 266,000 in 2016 in the whole country.

As this develops, a School Building Program bill has been recently filed in the Senate by Senator Edgardo Angara that proposes to tap the private sector to construct school buildings through a build-operate-transfer and rehabilitate-operate-transfer deal.

Under the bill, both government and private funding can be used for the construction of school facilities. The program will be handled by an inter-agency committee headed by the secretary of education.