P14 million allocated for new rooms, fence of Zapatera Elementary School

CEBU, Philippines – A four-classroom four-storey building, or a total of 16 classrooms, will soon be constructed at the Zapatera Elementary School to help reduce the number of students per classroom, Cebu City Councilor Lea Ouano-Japson said.

Japson explained that the ideal class size should not exceed 35 but because of the lack of classrooms, school officials are compelled to squeeze in up to 50 pupils for every room.

The City Council had already passed Japson’s resolution approving the Program of Works and Estimates or POWE for the proposed school building amounting to P13.2 million that was prepared by the city engineer’s office.

Another POWE worth P1.1 million for the repair of the school’s perimeter fence was also passed by the Council, Japson said.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña had already approved of the city spending P14.3 million for the construction of a school building and for the repair of the school concrete fence.

The amount will be taken from the Special Education Fund. The law provides that “one percent of the real property taxes collected by the local government unit shall be allocated for the SEF.”

The next move of the City Council is to propose that the needed budget shall be allocated out of the SEF funds while the bidding for the project is also to be conducted weeks from now.

Zapatera Elementary School is among the major public elementary schools in the city because it accommodates schoolchildren even from neighboring barangays Lorega-San Miguel, Day-as, and T. Padilla.

The Department of Education had made the Zapatera Elem. School as its pilot school for the implementation of the Special Education class.

“Magpasalamat g’yod mi kaayo sa Cebu City government kon matukoran mi ug bag-ong school building,” one of the teachers of Zapatera Elem. School said.

City education consultant Joy Augustus Young said that the city will construct more school buildings within this year because the city has the funds for the project. — Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)