6,000 Ilocos Sur students benefit from new Pagcor school buildings
Ilocos Sur became the newest recipient of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. ( Pagcor)’ s school building project.
Pagcor together with its partner agencies – the Department of Education ( DepEd) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – turned over a two-story, six-classroom building to Ilocos Sur National High School (ISNHS) in Vigan City and a one-story, five-classroom building to Banaoang Community School (BanCS) in the Municipality of Santa. The two buildings will benefit more than 6,000 students from both schools.
Built in 1902, ISNHS is one of the country’s oldest learning institutions. It is the most densely populated public school in the province with a current enrolment of 6,000.
Despite its huge population, the school has only 100 functional classrooms. “With this new school building we will have adequate rooms for our students. Likewise, we will have additional spaces where they can enhance their skills as we plan to make this new facility a computer center,” INHS principal Romulo Quitevis said.
B a nCS head Salvador Lazo Jr., was also extremely grateful to the state-owned gaming firm for giving them more than what they requested.
With a school population of only 248 pupils, BanCS has enough classrooms for its enrollees. But most of their classrooms are cramped.
Ten-year-old Adriane Chris Ancheta, a grade 5 student from Barangay Banaoag is one of the lucky students in BanCS who will soon use the new Pagcor classrooms.
With the new classrooms, Adriane looks forward to go to school each day. He is now more inspired to fulfill his deceased father’s dream for him to become a civil engineer someday.
During the formal turn-over of the two school buildings, Pagcor assistant vice president for community relations and services Arnell Ignacio proudly shared that to date, the agency has already built close to 4,000 classrooms in more than 700 sites nationwide.