Marcos visits fire-hit Quezon City school

MANILA, Philippines — Agencies should ensure that school buildings are safe following a fire on Sunday that hit San Francisco High School in Quezon City, President Marcos said yesterday.

Marcos, Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Mayor Joy Belmonte inspected the school after 10 classrooms were destroyed by the fire, destroying about P3 million in property and affecting 720 junior high school students.

“We have to look at other schools to ensure that at the very least, there is a good fusebox so that electrical systems will not overload,” Marcos said.

The Department of Public Works and Highways is planning to replace the damaged school with a four-story building with 36 classrooms.

The project will cost about P180 million and is expected to be finished within a year.

Angara said private and public partners provided aid: SC Johnson delivered 140 armchairs, while the school’s alumni association and Barangay Sto. Cristo provided paint, toilet fixtures and manpower.

Nearby public schools shared surplus furniture, he said.

Some P100,000 in immediate aid was released by the Department of Education’s Quezon City schools division office.

More support is being coordinated with the Philippine Statistics Authority and SM Foundation.

San Francisco High School is one of the largest public high schools in Quezon City, with over 7,300 enrolled students and nearly 330 teaching and non-teaching personnel.

Learning recovery aid

Remedial and tutorial classes in Quezon City have benefitted about 2,000 students, Belmonte said.

“Our goal before I step down in 2028 is for the rest of the 5,000 kids to be (brought up to speed in terms of reading and numeracy),” Belmonte said during the launch of Clinics for Learners’ Access to School-health Services Plus (CLASS+) at Esteban Abada Elementary School.

Local officials are working with the private sector for the learning recovery program, she said.

“They donate to this trust fund and we have identified all the non-readers and non-numerates in our schools already,” Belmonte said.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned of a “real and widespread learning crisis” in the Philippines.

Citing a 2019 study, UNICEF education chief Akihiro Fushimi said 90 percent of Filipino learners in Grade 5 cannot read at their expected level, while 83 percent continue to struggle with basic mathematics.

Belmonte said retired teachers and returning overseas Filipino workers who had worked as educators are being hired “so they will have income... and they have the expertise to teach our children.”

As for the issue of congestion in schools, Belmonte said the shortage of space remains a problem.

“What we are doing is to identify spaces where we can build schools. We have one school now in Novaliches where we are building an eight-story building,” she noted.

Aside from the fire at San Francisco High School, Belmonte said no untoward incidents were recorded after classes started on Monday. — Bella Cariaso