MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes cited increased enrollment in high school and elementary levels as good education indicators for the city.
With this comes the challenge for students to finish school and for the city government to address their needs, especially the lack of classrooms, he said in his State of the Children Address at City Hall yesterday.
The city’s public schools showed a 12 percent increase with 5,485 students compared to last year’s enrollment of 4,886.
It grew by three percent in elementary grades or 41,008 compared to last year’s 39,625. For public high schools, enrollment this year also increased by about three percent at 18,088 students compared to last year’s 17,834.
In private elementary schools, there was an increase of 22 percent or 8,406 compared to last year’s 6,528 enrollment.
Private high school enrollment last year of 7,147 went up this year to 7,766.
“I am happy to note that more and more of our students are staying and finishing schools,” he added.
Cortes said the city government needs to work harder to find resources for more classrooms.
He said that 48 new classrooms benefitted 2,300 students. These classrooms were built through public-private partnership.
Mandaue city was recently awarded P25 million worth of projects from the national government to address the city’s classroom shortge.
“We will be able to eradicate this shortage one classroom at a time. I am sure of it,” Cortes said.
The construction of 105 classrooms at Mandaue City Central School is being pursued with the help of groups like Veco, Aboitiz Foundation Inc., Aboitizland, Agapp and Jollibee.
Meanwhile, the government’s anti-poverty project, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program program, has reached 2,271 families.
Cortes said, the City Social Services and Dept. of Education have been closely monitoring the families who benefit in the 4Ps program, to make sure their children remain in school as a condition for cash aid and other benefits in the anti-poverty program.