7 Negros Oriental schools receive new classrooms

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) recently turned over new kindergarten classrooms to seven public elementary schools in Negros Oriental as part of the government’s effort to improve preschool education in the country.

The new buildings were funded by the Aklat, Gabay, Aruga tungo sa Pag-angat at Pag-asa (AGAPP) Foundation and Asian Development Bank-Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction.

The seven schools that benefitted from the newly built “Silid Pangarap buildings” are the Okiot Elementary School, Bais Science ES, Sto. Tomas ES, San Miguel ES, Sta. Catalina ES, Candugay ES, and Maloh ES.

“One of the first programs of the Aquino administration was universalizing kindergarten to which the AGAPP foundation urgently volunteered to help,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said.

Founded in 2010, AGAPP is a non-profit organization engaged in the preschool construction in depressed and disadvantaged areas designated by the DepEd.

AGAPP Foundation is currently chaired by Presidential sister Pinky Aquino-Abellada.

Aside from the colorful Silid Pangarap buildings, the AGAPP foundation also provides feeding programs for learners and trainings for teachers, Luistro said.

Under Republic Act 10157 or the “Kindergarten Education Act,” which was passed into law in January 2011, the DepEd made one year of kindergarten compulsory and a prerequisite to entering Grade 1.

Kindergarten is free to five-year-olds in the public elementary schools under the K to 12 basic education reform program, which consists of kindergarten, six years of elementary, two years of junior high and two years of senior high school.

But former United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) secretary general and STAR columnist Preciosa Soliven said the Education for All agenda and the educational-related Millennium Development Goals are unlikely to be achieved by 2015.