Makati City earmarks

High-qualitiy education remains a top priority of the local government of Makati City, which allocated 11.5 billion this year to fund programs, services and innovations to be implemented across all levels in the city’s public schools.

Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay has expressed her commitment to provide quality education that is “accessible and highly relevant” to the youth of Makati.

“This year, we have allocated 11.56 billion for Youth, Culture and Education Services. Fifty three percent, or 1824.91 million, will go to UMak programs and operations,” said Binay, speaking before participants of the 2017 National Convention of the Association of Local Colleges and Universities (ALCU) at the University of Makati (UMak) recently.

Binay asked UMak president Tomas Lopez, concurrently ALCU president, to study the possibility of opening two new courses at the university to address the need for more social workers and emergency medical technicians (EMT) and paramedics.

“I am proposing that the university open a two-year certificate course on Social Work that will eventually lead to a bachelor’s degree because our country is in need of more social workers,” Binay said.

Also, she urged the UMak administration to consider opening an EMT Paramedic course, in light of the worsening impact of climate change not only in Makati, but the entire countryas well.

“We ought to be more responsive and train more EMTs and paramedics to address the growing need for highly capable emergency and disaster response personnel,” the mayor said.

Binay said her administration will provide UMak with adequate funding to promote more innovative programs and curriculum enhancement, and strengthen partnership with the private sector to increase the employability of UMak graduates.

“Today’s industries and enterprises