DepEd to build 903 classrooms in EV

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines  â€” The Department of Education recently announced that at least 903 classrooms in Region 8 will be constructed this year, under the second phase of the Public Private Partnership School Infrastructure Project.

During the Regional Development Council’s Infrastructure Development Committee meeting, Glenn Orteza, of the DepEd’s physical facilities and schools engineering division, said 645 public elementary and secondary schools in Eastern Visayas will benefit from this project.

Based on last year’s enrollment, the region needs 1,626 classrooms, but the budget allocated by DepEd for school building program only allowed the construction of 566 classrooms.

The construction in Eastern Visayas is distributed as follows: 236 classrooms for Leyte province, 185 for Samar, 147 for Eastern Samar, 144 for Northern Samar, 65 for Calbayog City in Samar, 55 for Southern Leyte, 21 each for Tacloban City and Biliran province, 15 for Maasin City and 14 for Ormoc City.

The classrooms will be built under the build-transfer scheme, involving design, financing, and constructing of around 10,679 one-storey and two-storey classrooms, including furniture, fixtures and toilets, in 5,033 public schools in 14 regions nationwide, Orteza added.  (FREEMAN)