Capitol Sets Additional 45 Classrooms for Next School Year

To address the insufficiency of classrooms in elementary schools in the province, the Cebu Provincial Government has allotted P90 million this year for 45 classrooms whose construction will start this month, a legislative official said.

Provincial Board member Christopher Baricuatro, in a meeting with the Provincial School Board on Wednesday, said that providing additional school buildings is among their priority in support of Governor Hilario P. Davide III’s commitment to his six-key development agenda for education.

“Our priority is to address the inadequate classrooms for the elementary pupils,” he said adding that the construction of the first 15 classrooms is set to start this month.

According to Baricuatro, some P30 million is needed to produce 15 elementary classrooms with a ratio of one is to 45 pupils.

Baricuatro, chairman of the committee on education, said that these infrastructures will help solve the shortage of about 1,800 classrooms in public elementary schools.

Sixty million of the project cost comes from last year’s allocation while the P30 million is taken from the 2017 allotment, he said.

As of October 2016, Capitol spent around P55 million for 94 classrooms for public schools all over Cebu province.

Armchairs and school supplies

To go with the construction of school buildings, Baricuatro said that at least 4,700 plastic armchairs will also be distributed to elementary and high schools.

He said these will come with school supplies. School bags will also be apportioned to pupils from kindergarten up to grade 6. Baricuatro said that these will be distributed before the next round of classes in June.

“We will be distributing 30,000 bags and targeting 474,000 pupils to receive school supplies,” he said.

New laboratories for Science high schools

The 7th district board member also announced the construction of state-of-the art laboratories for the 12 National Science High Schools in the province.

These laboratories, according to Baricuatro, can be used for English proficiency classes, sciences and for robotics projects.

“We are targeting all these Science schools to have these labs, but our initial budget of P1.8 million is only good for six schools,” Baricuatro said.

A budget of P15 million is also set aside for instructional materials, including books and disaster preparedness manuals, Baricuatro added.

SOURCE: www.cebu.gov.ph