Retail giant, partners pool P17M to build more schoolhouses nationwide

One of the country’s largest corporations and an international bank are providing some P17 million to help government address the perennial shortage in public school classrooms.

The SM Group, a retail and real estate giant, along with Deutsche Bank, signed agreements with the Department of Education (DepEd) to fund up to 26 classrooms in selected schools.

The assistance came as DepEd doubled its classroom construction target this year to some 30,000 across the country to reduce by more than half the current shortage.

Public schools are currently in need of some 50,000 classrooms to prevent congestion and reach the ideal classroom-student ratio of one to 45.

“The resource gap in the country’s public school system is so huge that any help from other sectors especially private businesses is most welcome,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said.

According to the new agreements, SM Prime will cover the construction of a two-story building with four classrooms in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

SM Prime will also build six one-story, two-classroom buildings: one unit each in Davao City, General Santos, Sariaya and Cebu; and two units (four rooms) in Pampanga.

The total P10.8-million project cost will also pay for classroom fittings, including chairs, tables, wall fans and chalkboards.

SM Prime and Deutsche Bank also donated a two-classroom building in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, and a two-story, four-room building in Navotas City, each contributing P2.15 million.

With BDO Foundation, SM Prime will build a P2.2-million building with four classrooms in General Santos City. Classrooms will be complete with school furniture.

The project with the SM Group and Deutsche Bank will be under the Adopt-a-School program, “one of DepEd’s most effective and creative ways” of working with the private sector.

Luistro said earlier the classroom construction program would be in full swing in the next year and a half through similar public-private partnerships (PPP), DepEd’s annual budget and cooperation with nongovernment organizations and local government units (LGUs).

He said some 30,000 classrooms could be built within 2012, almost twice the number of classrooms that DepEd either finished or started in 2011, which was about 16,000.

The mass construction program would include 10,000 through the DepEd budget, 10,000 through co-funding schemes with LGUs, and another 10,000 through PPP [public-private partnership], Luistro said.

The remaining 20,000 could be finished from January to June in 2013.

“I may not be able to do the 50,000 by December. But the remaining 20,000 can be programmed between January and May 2013. So it’s still done before the 2013 school year,” Luistro told the Inquirer.

Overcrowding in classrooms has been a perennial problem for DepEd, forcing schools in densely populated urban areas to hold classes in up to three shifts or in makeshift locations.

The annual increase in enrollment of up to 2.2 percent compounds the problem.

“Now, of course, it’s (number of classrooms) a moving target. But those new increases should be easily covered within the yearly budget,” Luistro said.

“I think this is really a banner year for our engineers. The 2011 budget (for classrooms) was used for 2011, and most of the one-story buildings were already finished by December 31,” he said.