City gets 40 classrooms from Pagcor

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City yesterday received 40 classrooms for two of its public elementary schools from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, a welcome move in the light of classroom shortage experienced in the city.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were consecutively held at Inayawan Elementary School and Guadalupe Elementary School for a four-story, 20-classroom building for each school.

Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud said Pagcor Cebu has allocated about P80 million for the project to be constructed under the school building initiative of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Angtud said construction will follow after the groundbreaking, adding that it would take four to six months for the project to be finished.

She said it was Pagcor Cebu which identified the beneficiary after a series of consultation.

Housing some 6,700 students, Guadalupe ES is the second public school in the city with the most population next to Cebu City Central School with 7,000 elementary students.

Angtud said Pagcor is yet to identify four more schools in the city to be the next beneficiaries. One school will be identified this year and three next year.

Pagcor Cebu Chairman Cristino Naguiat, Jr. said northern Cebu is yet to receive the same school building project.

“Marami pa pong nakalinya (na projects) para dito sa Cebu province,” he said.

Naguiat said Pagcor Cebu has allocated P5 billion for the whole country given to DepEd for school building projects prioritizing schools devastated by super typhoon Yolanda.

“Kami, funding lang kami pero mino-monitor namin ‘yon for transparency,” he said.

He said there’s a delay on the construction of these projects since local government units have to follow the rules in the procurement process.

Aside from the school building project, Pagcor Cebu has also allocated about P3 billion for the realization of e-learning project for all public schools in the country.

Naguiat said DepEd is still identifying whether computers or tablets will be utilized for this e-learning project gives students access to the Internet.

Cebu City south district Representative Rodrigo Abellanosa said he is monitoring the lack of classrooms in his district.

“Last year, naa ta’y 406 nga kuwang nga classrooms,” he said, adding that they are doing everything to address the problem.

Abellanosa said he is thankful because Pagcor Cebu has been giving classrooms to Cebu City that helped in augmenting backlogged classrooms.

For his part, Mayor Michael Rama said everyone should work together to address the issue on classroom shortage.

“When we talk about education, it has to be addressed seriously because poverty can only be addressed if all will be educated,” the mayor said.

Angtud said DepEd could not solve the lack of classrooms without the help of everyone and the non-government organizations, just like Pagcor.

“Dako kaayo mi og pasalamat sa mga NGOs ug sa city government kay kami sa DepEd, admitted gyud mi nga dili namo makaya kun kami lang,” she said.

She said DepEd is now preparing for 2016’s implementation of K to 12 that is seen to further worsen classroom shortage problem in the country.

Cebu City has 80 barangays, only 69 of which have public elementary schools and 47 have public secondary schools. —/JMD (FREEMAN)