INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — About a fifth of the more than 17,500 public school classrooms destroyed by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” last November will be rebuilt by the private sector.
The Department of Education said private donors have committed so far to rebuild and repair 3,467 out of the 17,620 classrooms in the Visayas region and in Palawan that need to be replaced and repaired.
Eight companies have pledged to rebuild entire schools—a total of 38 schools—that were devastated by the killer typhoon.
“They have pledged to rebuild all the classrooms in these schools,” said Education undersecretary for partnerships Mario Deriquito during a gathering of donors at the DepEd on Wednesday.
He said a total 2,210 schools sustained damage from the supertyphoon. Over 13,000 classrooms were destroyed.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro signed separate agreements with more than 50 private companies and groups for the rehabilitation of schools.
Along with destroyed classrooms, affected schools also lost learning materials and school supplies while teachers, staffers and students alike suffered personal losses.
Luistro earlier received a P2 billion donation from the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. to construct 2,000 classrooms.
Luistro said some of the classroom reconstruction will start this month.
“Let’s show that it’s possible to rebuild these schools better,” Luistro said, adding their target is to finish the construction and repair of all one-story classrooms by May 31 before the start of the next school year.
The donor groups, including Coca-Cola, One Meralco, Philam Life, Security Bank, Rotary and the Romualdez family, pledged to construct at least 198 new classrooms and repair at least 278 others.
DepEd has received pledges for 621,428 learners’ kits out of the needed 1.5 million learners’ kits that were lost.
Other companies, including Jollibee Group Foundation, Assisi Development Foundation and Feed the Children Philippines, Operation Blessing Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House Charities Phils., have pledged to provide for the school-based month-long feeding of 176,579 pupils, out of the 254,723 pupils that need emergency feeding.
Other private groups have pledged cash assistance for teachers whose homes were destroyed during the super typhoon.
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