Mayor to cut in half 362-classroom shortage

LAPU-LAPU City Mayor Paz Radaza yesterday vowed to cut the city's shortage of classrooms by half in three years and urged students again to write and ask the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) to settle its unpaid taxes.

With a shortage of 362 classrooms, Radaza said she will tap the private sector, the National Gov- ernment and the office of Rep. Aileen Radaza (LapuLapu City, lone district) to build more classrooms.

Radaza, who spoke during a gathering of teachers in the city, urged teachers to encourage their pupils to write the MCIAA.

“To our teachers, explain to your students that MCIAA owes the City P1.5 billion in taxes—money that could have been used in building more classrooms. Let your students tell them how badly we need more classrooms,” she said.

Donations

Radaza said the city lacked more than 500 classrooms when she assumed as mayor in 2010, but the shortage is now down by 30 percent.

“I call on our principals to reach out to your respec- tive community. There are prominent families, kind souls, as well as business owners who might want to donate a classroom or two. Tap their generosity,” the mayor said.

Radaza also urged the teachers to catch up with technology, saying the City wants to “bridge the digital divide.”

The City has embarked on several “digital initia- tives,” including putting up the Mactan Post, the first social news media initiated by a local government unit and run by members of Sangguniang Kabataan and campus journalists.

Radaza called on the schools to contribute to the Mactan Post and urged school administrators to “leverage technology to help our students become competitive in the real world.”

She urged schools to embrace “techno-preneurship” by creating a techno lab and “innovation corner” in every school.

“Let us not be paralyzed by the lack of classrooms or the lack of funds in our public school system that we would no longer attempt to race with technology,” she said.