14 B needed to repair damaged Marawi schools – Briones

As Marawi slowly picks up the pieces on the road to normalcy, real work begins not only in the lives of thousands that were ruined by five months of war but also in the infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said around 14 billion is needed to rehabilitate, restore, and repair damaged schools in the aftermath of the Marawi crisis.

A featured guest of the Manila Bulletin Hot Seat, a roundtable discussion with Manila Bulletin editors on Friday, Briones said all 59 schools in Marawi City alone are affected and about 20 of these are “totally destroyed, pounded to the ground” while the rest need “major repairs.”

And as soon as they get clearance from the military, Briones said, “I’m going there myself because we have to look at the state of the facilities and school buildings and it’s not just these buildings, the laboratories, books and others.”

When the siege erupted last May, students were the most affected. Data from DepEd shows there were 27,673 students who were displaced and forced to enroll in various schools nationwide. “They are scattered all over the country… name a region and you have a Marawi child enrolled there and they are well integrated,” Briones said.

Because the crisis erupted a month before the opening of classes, Marawi schools were asked to suspend the opening of classes. But teachers continued to receive their salaries because it is not their fault that this thing (siege) happened, Briones explained.

“However, we asked all schools nationwide to accept Marawi learners and evacuees should they choose to enroll even without documentation,” she added. Region 10 which is near Marawi recorded the largest number of student transferees with 15,988.

Marawi City which is under the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has its own education secretary. “However, we set the policies and we monitor so we do have a very good relationship with the DepEd ARMM,” Briones noted. Nationwide ‘Brigada para sa Marawi’ The “Recovery Plan” of DepEd for Marawi is mainly focused on rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged facilities. It consists of “Brigada Eskwela sa Marawi” which will focus on repair school buildings, prepositioning temporary learning spaces (TLS) and provision of psycho-social support; “Operation Balik Eskwela” which is scheduled to follow at least two weeks after the conduct of the “Brigada” to entice displaced learners to return to their schools which have already been repaired and rehabilitated; and the Adopt-a-School program where donors are welcome to “adopt” a damaged school for reconstruction of school buildings and facilities with complete furniture and materials.

Briones said DepEd is preparing for the “Brigada Para sa Marawi” – a one-day activity for “cleaning up and looking at the state of things.”

Briones said this activity is not limited to officials of Marawi but is open to all who wish to help the city get back on its feet. “We’re inviting the whole country… it will be a national ‘brigada’ and all are invited to participate,” she said.

As early as June, Briones announced the conduct of “Brigada Eskwela sa Marawi” in cooperation with DepEd-ARMM, DepEd Central Office (CO), DepEd Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS), DepEd Region 10, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and other partner agencies and organizations.

“We will expedite the revitalization of education in Marawi City through this,” Briones stressed.

“We also consider the safety and security, not only of our learners and workforce, but of the individuals and organizations that will go the extra mile to ensure the resumption of classes in Marawi,” she said. “As soon as clearance is given that the city is safe from unexploded ordnance and other security threats, we will mobilize communities and volunteers to rebuild schools,” she added.

The “Brigada Eskwela sa Marawi” seeks to rehabilitate public school facilities with minimal damage, and to perform structural investigation and thorough intervention assessment for public schools with substantial damages. In preparing and repairing the schools, DepEd said it needs volunteers and construction supplies such as, but not limited to, paint, cement, nails, galvanized iron sheets, lumber, and hand tools.

Presidential commitment

While DepEd is currently assessing the damage in schools and other facilities, Briones said that they are also focusing on providing other immediate needs – particularly psychosocial debriefing for both teachers and students. “You cannot calm down the students if the teachers are still in a state of trauma even until now,” she said.

In June, DepEd led the conduct of Psychological First Aid (PFA) for the first batch of teachers and personnel in Cagayan de Oro City. Briones said President Duterte “was very touched” that he committed a sizeable amount from the Presidential Social Fund when she talked about the need for psycho-social debriefing for the affected learners and teachers.

Briones assured that DepEd will extend all the help needed to help restore the schools affected by the crisis even if there will be no teachers or students around. “We are not sure if those who left will come back immediately,” she said.

To date, DepEd has downloaded 17 million for teachers’ kits and others. DepEd is hopeful that it will be allowed to use the funds under its Basic Education Facilities Fund (BEFF).