Catmon school gets facelift

The once old and dilapidated school building of Panalipan Elementary School in Catmon town, northern Cebu now looks as good as new.

The newly rehabilitated two-classroom school building was turned over by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) to the teachers and school administrators last Oct. 11.

The Gonzales-type school building was repaired through the school rehabilitation program of RAFI.

“Our dream is to be able to help create classrooms that are more child-friendly, participative and stimulating. It is our hope that these newly repaired classrooms will be able to contribute towards improving student performance and participation,” Amaya Aboitiz, RAFI’s deputy director for operations, said.

RAFI shouldered the material cost of the repair amounting to P729,229 while the local government of Catmon spent P206,891 for the labor as their counterpart.

The rehabilitation project covered the repair of a three-piece concave-type blackboard and the installation of toilet and lavatory in each classroom.

“This two-classroom building had been vacant for more than five years due to structural defects that posed danger to our pupils,” said school head Sandra Laurel.

“My pupils will now be encouraged to attend classes because of their new classroom,” pre-school teacher Sheila Rojo said.

The two-classroom school building in Catmon brings to 479 the total number of classrooms repaired by RAFI in 143 different schools in 34 towns in Cebu since the program started in 2004.

For more information about the program, contact Jicel Reve Gabriel at 4187234 local 205 or visit www.rafi.org.ph or www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph or https://schoolrehab.rafi.org.ph.