MANILA, Philippines - The partnership of SM Prime Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Ag Manila and SM Foundation Inc. has resulted anew in a newly constructed two-storey, four- classroom building complete with chairs, tables, wall fans, computers and a toilet per classroom in Wawang Pulo, Valenzuela.
Aside from these, murals depicting moral values are painted within the walls of the classrooms painstakingly done by volunteer employees of the Bank during weekends. This is the 12th schoolbuilding with a total of 48 classrooms built by the partners: one in Quezon City, two in Taytay, two in Bogo, Cebu, Caloocan, two in Cavite, one in both Pateros and San Jose del Monte. More schoolbuildings are jointly being built in Tacloban and Cebu expected to be finished within the year.
So far, Deutsche Bank has built 79 classrooms nationwide as part of its social commitment to promote educational well-being in the country. “Fourty-eight of these classrooms were built in joint partnership with SM Prime Holdings through the SM Foundation,” said Atty. Rhoniel Fajardo, country chief operating officer of Deutsche Bank. “The rest were built in partnership with the PBSP,” he added.
According to school principal Arcenoel Zapatos, there are 868 students enrolled in K to 12 with an average of 40-60 students per section from Grades 1 – 10. The new schoolbuilding will host one section of Grade V1, Grade III, Kindergarten and a special class (SPED). The school occupies 10,000 sq. meters with a total of two schoolbuildings plus the third new schoolbuilding. “We expect another schoolbuilding to be built by the DEPED next school year that will greatly help reduce the number of students per section and hopefully the request for additional teachers will be approved,” said Zapatos.