Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso led the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, July 26, 2021, for the construction of a modern building for the Manila Science High School. (Photo from the Manila Public Information Office)
MANILA, Philippines — The Manila Science High School, the first science high school in the Philippines, which was established in 1963, will soon have a modern building worth P1.3 billion.
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso already led the groundbreaking ceremony for the project last Monday, July 26.
“All of you deserve better things from your government,” the mayor said at the ceremony.
“If public schools are already producing individuals who are competent in the industries that they belong to, what more if the day would come when they would have adequate, orderly, and beautiful facilities in their school?” he added in Filipino.
The building will occupy a 3,690.80-square-meter lot on Taft Avenue. It will have 10 floors and a roof deck, and each floor will cover 2,466.88 square meters and have two offices. There will be five elevators, each with a 24-person capacity.
All of the 158 classrooms — each measuring 168 square meters — will be fully airconditioned.
Following are the other facilities:
- a 189-square-meter library
- a 270-square-meter canteen
- a 459-square-meter auditorium
- a 777-square-meter gymnasium
- a 1,187.56-square-meter outdoor sports arena
“Building this school is our own little way of stimulating our domestic economy in the City of Manila. At the same time, we address the perennial problem of the teacher-student ratio in our public education system,” Domagoso said.
The new school will have the following teacher-student ratio:
- Kinder – 1:25
- Grades 1 to 3 – 1:40
- Grades 4 to 10 – 1:45
- Grades 11 to 12 – 1:40 students
This is the second of the three modernized public school buildings that Manila has planned to start building this year.
Last July 19, Domagoso led the groundbreaking ceremony for a 10-story building at the Rosauro Almario Elementary School in Tondo. The city has allotted P1.9 billion for the project.
Up next is the Dr. Alejandro Albert Elementary School in Sampaloc, with P2 billion allotted for the project.
In all, Manila has allocated over P5 billion for the construction of the three modernized public schools.