Classroom construction being rushed in Cordillera
BAGUIO CITY—The Department of Public Works and Highways is rushing to build 364 classrooms in the Cordillera after its construction was delayed by the May 13 elections, a Department of Education (DepEd) official said on Wednesday.
Sebastian Tayaban, DepEd Cordillera assistant director, said the 2012 target was to build 1,200 classrooms but budgeting process and the work ban imposed on government agencies by the midterm elections had forced the agency to reschedule its infrastructure projects.
Tayaban said private-public ventures were building 630 more classrooms, hoping to complete work before the year ends. For example, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. has donated
15 classrooms to a public school in Benguet.
Population increase
Tayaban said the classroom construction addressed the increase in students during the transition of enforcing the reformed basic education program called K to 12. The reforms made kindergarten mandatory and added two years to the high school program.
The new classrooms could help the agency achieve the ideal ratio of one teacher to
45 pupils, Tayaban said.
The DepEd Cordillera office expects to have 600 more classrooms before 2016, he said.
The agency has also proposed to build schools suited for the mountain terrain, instead of following the standard design for school buildings nationwide, partly to address problems on expanding schools and their vulnerability to landslides.
Slopes
Tayaban said many of the schools also had no land titles because of outdated national laws governing mountain slopes and forest lands. An old law prohibits construction on mountainsides with 18-degree slope.
In Bulacan, 460 students and teachers of President Corazon Aquino National High School in Malolos City held classes at a village hall because all they have for a school are foundations of a two-story building, also due to delays caused by the election ban
on government construction work.
The school, named after President Aquino’s mother, was established in 2011 through Republic Act No 10499. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, with a report from Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon
