An Agapp kindergarten classroom PHOTO FROM AGAPP.PH
MANILA, Philippines—President Aquino’s sister Aurora Corazon “Pinky” Aquino-Abellada expressed amazement at how her group of volunteers has surpasssed her expectations in building hundreds of kindergarten classrooms in far-flung places, purely out of private donations.
In the three years since her brother assumed office, Aquino-Abellada reported that the Aklat, Gabay at Aruga tungo sa Pag-angat at Pag-asa (Agapp) Foundation, which she heads, built 601 classrooms in public schools in remote communities for the use of pupils who are entering school for the first time.
That is 1.8 classrooms built each day in the past three years.
Agapp has made it its goal to build 1,000 classrooms for the use of underprivileged kindergarten pupils during the term of President Aquino.
During the formal turnover Wednesday of the latest batch of Agapp classrooms sponsored by the Aboitiz Foundation, Aquino-Abellada admitted that when her brother’s civic-minded friends broached the idea of helping out in the education sector, she felt that the target of 1,000 classrooms was too ambitious.
She confessed she lowered her expectation but that her fellow volunteers insisted on their original target.
“We have already built 601 classrooms, past the 500 classrooms I proposed in 2010. We dreamed of building 1,000 classrooms for 50,000 kinder students… We at Agapp are so amazed,” Aquino-Abellada said.
She said Agapp has built classrooms all over the country from Tuguegarao City in the north to Basilan and Maguindanao in the south.
During the formal classroom turnover to mark Aboitiz Foundation’s 25th anniversary, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the fully furnished classrooms put up by Agapp through private donations have changed how he regards kindergarten.
“Agapp started building these beautiful attractive classrooms complete with toilet, child-friendly blackboards and sets of books, in some of the farthest schools of DepEd (Department of Education). The problem is they’ve become a standard,” Luistro said.
He said he would always use the beautiful two-classroom single-story structures put up by Agapp in far-flung schools as an example of how a classroom should look like.
Aboitiz Foundation in 2011 turned over 52 classrooms worth P23 million to Agapp; 42 classrooms worth P23.6 million in 2012; and 40 classrooms worth P24.9 million this year.
Aboitiz Foundation president Jon Ramon Aboitiz said they have partnered with Agapp to build classrooms for underprivileged kindergarten pupils because they share the belief that a child who enters school for the first time should be happy with his environment.