Students during flag ceremony at the Batasan Hills National High School, Quezon City on the first day of classes. It is one of the public high schools with the largest student population at 12,239 enrollees. It is more than last year, according to its Principal Diego Amit, with students transferring from private schools due to tuition fee increases. LYN RILLON/INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines—Two lawmakers who chair education committees in the House of Representatives blamed the shortage of classrooms to the lack of space in Metro Manila, adding that the country’s capital need to be “decentralized.”
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Pangasinan Representative Kimi Cojuangco and Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo said the lack of space limits the construction of new school buildings in the metro.
“Kahit na gustong magtayo ng bagong school building, saan magtatayo? Because … walang space (Even if you want to build a new school building, where will you build it? There’s no space for it),” said Romulo, who chairs the House higher and technical education committee.
Besides the lack of space, the high costs of land in the metropolis also poses a problem, said Cojuangco, who chairs the basic education and culture committee.
“Hindi lang iyong kulang ng espasyo, problema din natin is napakamahal ng lupa dito sa (National Capital Region) so hindi kaya bumili ng lupa ang (Department of Education) (It’s not just a problem of space, another problem is that land in the National Capital Region is very expensive),” Cojuangco said
She added that six of 10 schools in the country are built on donated properties.
The Pangasinan lawmaker said Metro Manila should be “decentralized” and that schools should be built in areas outside of the capital.
“You have to decentralize Manila. It (has) to be an over-all, big, grand scale plan to decentralize Manila. Start developing areas outside of Manila that are complete so that people will not be afraid to live in those areas,” Cojuangco said.
“People come here because everything’s here. Why don’t we start putting our attention into other provinces?… This has to be a grand scale plan. We cannot do it over night but it can be done,” she added.
Primary and secondary schools nationwide opened on June 2, Monday.
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