Australia sets A$150M for 1T classrooms in Phl

CEBU, Philippines – San Miguel town in Bohol was among the recipients of the Australian fund assistance for the reconstruction of schools around the country.

Australia's Ambassador to the Philippines Bill Tweddell said four school buildings and nine classrooms will be built in this town: A three-classroom building for San Miguel Elementary School and a two-classroom building each for the elementary schools in Barangays Cambangay, Cagaway and Tomoc.

The project is under the Basic Education Sector Transformation to help the Department of Education and to improve quality learning environment, Tweddell said during the groundbreaking rites of the construction of the three-classroom building in this town to replace the one that was destroyed by the earthquake last year.

Australia had allocated A$150 million for the construction of 1,000 classrooms nationwide within four years, 252 of these are the priority during the two-year period.

Among the priorities are 37 for typhoon Pablo-affected areas, 18 for Albay province, nine for Iloilo, eight for Northern Samar, seven for Cebu, six for Misamis Oriental, four for Bohol and two for the National Capital Region.

Each classroom has total area of 63 square meters and is "disaster-resilient that can withstand 250 kilometer per hour of wind, elevated by one meter from the ground, with concrete roof deck, two toilets for boys and girls and persons-with-disability," Tweddell said. This is also equipped with a concave blackboard, 45 armchairs and a set of teachers table and chair.

"The Australian government  has a long standing development partnership with the province of Bohol, spanning more than 20 years. We are here for the long haul and are pleased to assist Bohol in building back better," Tweddell said during his meeting with Governon Edgar Chatto, Education Secretary Armin Luistro and National Youth Commissioner Dingdong Dantes.

Tweddell meanwhile turned over 40,000 books, under the Book For  Asia program, and then inspected the rehabilitated roads carried out under the provincial roads management facility funded by A$100 million.