More classrooms constructed in QC

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., in response to the growing population of students in public elementary and high schools in the city, inaugurated last Friday a newly constructed school building in Barangay Novaliches proper.

The four-story, 16-classroom building of the Novaliches High School is the seventh public school building constructed since Belmonte assumed office on July 1, 2000, translating into 212 additional classrooms.

Jun Escaro, infrastructure coordinator of the city school division, said the new school buildings include five elementary schools and two high schools in various parts of the city.

The construction of new school buildings has addressed the growing number of students in the city’s public schools. At least 400,000 students were enrolled in various public elementary and high school in the city this school year.

Apart from the new school buildings, the city government is set to bid out the repair and construction of 38 more school buildings in the four school districts of the city.

The current average ratio of students in public school is one room for every 43 students in elementary, and one for every 29 students in high school. There are about 94 public elementary and 38 secondary schools in Quezon City.

To ensure the delivery of education services particularly to urban poor areas, the city government has also set up at least 201 day-care centers with supplemental feeding stations.

Belmonte said the aim of the city government is to provide enough day-care centers facilities to cater to almost 30 percent of Quezon City’s three-year-old population.

He said the city government is now providing free tuition in kindergarten classes offered in some public schools. In the past, tuition was P100 a month for each pupil.

The city school board has also allotted P11.52 million for payment of the honorarium of P2,000 per month to each teacher in these classes.

The mayor also said improvements are being done to upgrade kindergarten facilities.