LAPU–LAPU City still needs 400 public school classrooms going into the opening of school year 2013-2014.
To accommodate all classes, including additional classes brought about by the revised basic education curriculum K + 12 the Department of Education (DepEd) in Lapu-Lapu City will be implementing again two class sessions per day in some public schools.
“It would somehow affect the quality of education as class schedules are being shortened.
Students would feel pressure and maybe their subjects would not be tackled in detail due to time constraints,” said Mayor Paz Radaza.
But she added that she had talked with the Schools Division Superintendent Eduardo Ompad to devise ways to mitigate the impact of the classroom shortage on the quality of education.
She added that the city government, DepEd and the private sector are working hard to source funds to build more classrooms.
Aside from government funds, non-government and private sector initiatives by organizations like the Ramon Aboitix Foundation Inc, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Movenpick hotel are helping out in building classrooms in Lapu-Lapu City.
Aside from addressing classroom shortage, the number of teachers had also been addressed by DepEd and the city government.
Radaza said the city government is hiring more than a hundred teachers to augment the shortage of regular teachers from DepEd.
Locally hired teachers will receive P17,000 per month, which is almost at par with the basic salaries of regular DepEd teachers.
Mayor Radaza thanked the non-government organizations and the private sector for their concern to students who deserve the best education.
Earlier, Mayor Paz Radaza called the attention of Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) to partially settle their accumulated tax dues to the local government which has now reached P1.5 billion.
The airport sits on more than 800 hectares of land in the city.
A fraction of this, she said could help a lot in alleviating the classroom shortage in the city.