MOA signed for container van classrooms

The Philippine government and a British non-government organization (NGO) signed yesterday a memorandum of agreement for the construction of the first classrooms made from recycled container vans.

When completed, the classrooms will reportedly make up the world’s biggest recycled container building.

The memorandum was signed by Vice President Noli de Castro and Philippine Christian Foundation chief executive officer Jane Walker. The signing was witnessed by Jill Beckingham, wife of British Ambassador Peter Beckingham.

The construction of the new classrooms is part of efforts to address the classroom shortage.

Mrs. Beckingham said the project, which is supported by the British embassy, will begin construction in an area near the Smokey Mountain housing site in Manila.

"We need to build a new school paradise, which is an area near the permanent (site) of Smokey Mountain," Mrs. Beckingham said.

Walker said 120 40-ft. container vans will be used to build the school on a 1,443 square-meter tract of land provided by the Philippine government in Manila’s Tondo district.

"We’re going to build a school," Walker said. "It’s going to be the biggest container building, I think, in the world. We’ll be able to educate over a thousand children of workers. It’s a very big project."

She added that this will be the very first school built out of recycled container vans in the Philippines.

"We’ve got the memorandum of agreement and it’s going to be the first in the Philippines," Mrs. Beckingham said. "We really can educate them and get them out of the cycle of poverty."

Additional classrooms are needed because there are now over 70 students packed in each public school classroom.

De Castro said the agreement provides for the construction and completion of classrooms using container vans within a year of the signing of the pact.

The foundation informed De Castro that the expected completion date for the project is in September next year.