STUDENTS of Camalig North Central School in Camalig, Albay, attend their classes outdoors as their classrooms serve as temporary homes for families whose houses are within the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone of Mayon Volcano. MARK ALVIC ESPLANA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON
LEGAZPI CITY—The Department of Education (DepEd) has built 300 temporary classrooms in Albay province to accommodate thousands of pupils displaced due to the heightened unrest of Mayon Volcano.
The temporary classrooms will be used by pupils whose classrooms are now occupied by evacuees from Mayon’s danger zones and also by children of the evacuated families who have not been able to go to their schools, according to DepEd Bicol director Ramon Abcede.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro visited the province on Friday to check the condition of the evacuees, students and teachers occupying the temporary classrooms, also known as temporary learning spaces (TLS), that cost P18 million to build.
Abcede said each unit was built at a cost of P60,000 and could accommodate up to
50 students.
Abcede, in a phone interview, said Luistro visited the TLS units in evacuation centers at San Jose Elementary School in Malilipot town, Mayon Elementary School in Tabaco City, California Village in Kawa-Kawa Hill in Barangay (village) Tuburan in Ligao City, Guinobatan East Central School in Guinobatan town and Cabangan Elementary school in Camalig town.
Abcede said Luistro was impressed with the TLS as it would become the model for the DepEd’s calamity response program.
He said Luistro thanked the Philippine Army Engineering Brigade and the evacuees who worked for free to build the TLS units.
According to Abcede, tent classrooms that had been donated by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) were also visited by Luistro.
Abcede said the DepEd equipped the tents with native mats to serve as temporary ceilings to ease the heat inside the rooms.
The provincial government received 155 tents to serve as classrooms from Unicef after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised alert level 3 over Mayon on Sept. 15, prompting the evacuation of over 54,000 individuals to school buildings that were turned into evacuation centers.
About 50,000 students were affected when their schools were made into evacuation centers.