Luistro lauds biz sector's commitment to education

CEBU, Philippines - As the local business community exerted efforts to raise funds to address classroom shortage, Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro commended the commitment of private-public partnership (PPP) to education.

President Benigno Aquino III stated in his State of the Nation Address that 40, 000 classrooms are set to be completed by this year, with the backlog of 66,800 classrooms to be filled up by the end of 2013.

For Visayas, DepEd has reported a shortage of 4,214 classrooms.

He cited that since Aquino started his term, there were five critical inputs on education which include shortage on teachers, classrooms, textbooks, seats, and sanitation facilities.

He then said that two of which namely the lack of armed chairs and textbooks were already addressed during the first half of his administration.

He added that the government is geared towards closing the gap on the rest of the education-related problems in 2013.

“I am very confident, particularly with the private-public partnership, we will be able to address the classroom shortage next year,” he stated.

Luistro pointed out that such classrooms are to be built on an ideal learning environment with a maximum class size of 45 students and 25 for kindergarten.

Out of the 66,800 backlog, he cited that 22,781 classrooms were funded by the national government, local government units, foreign donors and private sector.

He added that for this year, there are 9,301 classrooms set for bidding next week under the PPP, 10,000 classrooms under the regular school building program of DepEd and Department of Public Works and Highways and an additional 3,000 classrooms projected from the private sector.

He said that there will be a possible maximum of four floors for each school building in which one classroom could cost P600,000 to P650,000.

To bring down the cost, he added that a new technology through PPP shall be utilized for a shorter construction period of classrooms.

However, he cited that additional cost would be considered for remote areas, thus making it more expensive especially if there is no road passage.

Although it will usually take nine months to one year for the bidding process, Luistro said that they are targeting to complete the construction as fast as possible, noting one storey would take three months to be built and turned over.

Ayala Corporation officials and education stakeholders recently launched the The Entire Nation Moves (TEN Moves) with an initial pledge of around P1.9 million that aims to build 10, 000 classrooms in public elementary and high schools nationwide next year.