City still hounded by lack of classrooms

CEBU, Philippines - Several newly-constructed school buildings, which are ready to be used during the opening of classes in June, were recently turned over by their contractors to the Cebu City government.

Mayor Michael Rama personally accepted the newly-constructed six-classroom two-storey buildings in barangays Busay and Bonbon, both in the hinterlands of the city. Similar school buildings were also turned over by its contractors to the city in barangays Paril and Lusaran.

However, Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said the new school buildings will not completely solve the lack of classrooms in the city.

According to Young, the contractor of the 20-classroom building at Vicente Rama National High School in barangay Basak-San Nicolas is also scheduled to turn over the project to the city during a simple ceremony tomorrow morning.

Rama will also accept another 20-classroom building in Zapatera Elementary School that will be turned over automatically to the Department of Education.

Rama urged the principals of the concerned schools to take care of the buildings.

“Maayo na lang nga duna ta’y bag-ong mga school buildings pero dili gihapon makasulbad sa atong problema sa kakuwang og classrooms,” Young said.

The Department of Education (DepEd) officials earlier said Cebu City still lacks of more than 300 classrooms if they will strictly implement the 40-student per-classroom policy.

Cebu City district schools superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud said at present, each classroom is occupied by 50 students, although there are some fortunate schools that are adopting the standard ratio because they have few students. (FREEMAN)