NEWS

By Ivy Tejano

DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Monday vowed to provide funds for the construction of more classrooms in different public schools here in the city by 2020.

In her seventh State of City Address (Soca) at the Sangguniang Panlungsod along San Pedro Street in Davao City, Duterte-Carpio highlighted the top 10 priorities of the city government: education, health, poverty alleviation and various services, infrastructure development, solid waste management and environment, agriculture, investments tourism, transportation planning and traffic management, disaster risk reduction, and peace and order.

The city mayor underscored the importance of these projects in the security and sustainable development of the city.

Among the highlights in education is the completion and ongoing construction of classrooms, respectively, in different areas in Davao City.

“We will continue to put funds for the construction of more classrooms that will help us in attaining zero backlog for our children’s classroom needs,” Duterte-Carpio said.

She said the local school board is set to approve a P650 million budget for education program in the coming weeks, of which P270 million will be used to fund more classroom constructions.

For the past three years, Duterte-Carpio said the city has been building 112 classrooms under its Special Education Fund (SEF), with 77 and 35 classroom constructions in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

“As of September 2019, the infrastructure projects funded by the SEF in 2017 and 2018 are already at 90 percent and 78 percent completed, respectively,” Duterte-Carpio said.

Duterte-Carpio said the success in putting up more classrooms for the learners of Davao was done with the help of their partners, both local and international.

Last year, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Philippines allocated funds for the construction of 13 modern 2-storey 4-classroom buildings in selected public schools here.

The mayor added that 11 of the 13 modern 2-storey 4 classroom buildings have been completed and are already being used by students in Davao City.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education (Deped) in Davao City also received assistance in putting up five school buildings from the EMCOR, four of which are already set for turn over this month.

For tertiary education, Duterte-Carpio said, discussions are underway for the possibility to utilize the infrastructure of Deped, specifically the facilities of the Davao City National High School (DCNHS) and Technical Assistance from the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) to cater to public schools’ Grade 12 and Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) graduates, to operate a city college.

Duterte-Carpio was also glad to note an increase in their scholars under the Educational Benefit System Unit (EBSU) from 1,595 in 2018 second semester to 1,904 in 2019 first semester.

She said the expanded Medical Scholarship Program, which started in 2017, has already produced three graduates who have become doctors.

Duterte-Carpio earlier said that using scholarships to send these students to world class private schools is a better strategy.

Source: Manila Bulletin