Valenzuela opens 1st newly built classrooms

MANILA, Philippines – Some 13,300 public elementary and secondary school students in Valenzuela City will benefit from the newly built 89 classrooms set to be opened by the local government for the start of classes Monday.

“This is a rough estimate at 50 pupils per section alternating in three class sessions,” Valenzuela City public information officer Marither Menia said. Menia said the recipients are students of Rincon Elementary School, Maysan National High School, Lingunan , Malinta , Silvestre Lazaro , Tagalag , Wawang Pulo and Canumay West elementary schools.

She said that the completed new school buildings and classrooms cost P96.9 million.

Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian said the rapidly increasing student population is the number one challenge the Valenzuela City education system is now facing. “It has been constantly rising and has increased at an average rate of 3.4 percent during the past three school years and the figure is expected to rise this coming school year. That is why we build more classrooms to accommodate the growing number of students and to meet our target of 45:1 classroom to student ratio,” the mayor said.

Gatchalian said that this year, the city government allotted P70 million more for the improvement and construction of additional school buildings.

“Education is the foundation of a country and the building block of its citizens’ social welfare and self-worth, and so it is in the front line of the city’s budget,” Gatchalian said.

Praceli Cañares, city engineering office acting chief, said that more classrooms are expected to be finished in the coming months aside from the existing classrooms and school buildings undergoing maintenance and repairs that are expected to be used this school year.

The Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela and the Valenzuela Polytechnic College are also allocated P32.4 million and P18 million budget, respectively, from the city’s general fund.

The PLV’s P70 million loan which the Development Bank of Philippines granted exclusively for the expansion of the institution, affording the city government to build an extension campus which will also be ready before the classes begin, did not include the P32.4 million allocation of the city government, Canares said.

Apart from the school buildings, preschoolers and elementary school pupils, from Grades I to VI, would also be given free Mathematics and English workbooks.

These were published by the city government under the “WIN ang Edukasyon Program,” a pet project of the mayor, which aims to focus on the overlooked areas of education.

Menia said the workbooks were developed exclusively for Valenzuela students in partnership with the local education department and Synergeia Foundation, an alliance of individuals, institutions and organizations committed and working together to improve the quality of basic education in the country.