Carmen, Catmon schools get new school buildings
Some students in Carmen and Catmon towns, which bore the brunt of super typhoon Yolanda two years ago, will no longer have to attend classes in a covered court or in cramped school buildings.
This as the construction of the three-story, nine-classroom school building projects of the Cebu provincial government and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) at Carmen National High School (CNHS) and Catmon Intergrated School (CIS) has already been completed.
Students are expected to move to their new classrooms anytime soon.
The Provincial Information Office reported that students of CNHS have been holding classes in the school's covered court since last year because their old classrooms were already dilapidated.
Six sections occupied the main court while two occupied the school stage using a blackboard as a divider.
Students in CIS, on the other hand, are jammed in their old school buildings.
The newly-built structures are part of the P110-milion high school building project of the Capitol and RAFI, P39 million of which represents the counterpart of the Capitol.
The local governments of the recipient towns provided the institutional, technical and operational support while the Department of Education provided the teachers and other room facilities.
Governor Hilario P. Davide III expressed his gratitude to RAFI for being Capitol's constant partner in providing more school buildings for the youth.
He emphasized that investing on education is "one effective way of eradicating poverty."
"Education gives people the tools to better provide for themselves and their family; creates opportunities for economic growth and keeps people and communities healthy," Davide said.
RAFI's Education Development Unit executive director Anton Dignadice said that the construction of new school buildings is aimed at augmenting the school's learning facilities.
According to data from DepEd, Cebu has about 270,000 high school students with only around 4,500 existing classrooms.
At least a thousand more classrooms are needed to completely accommodate all current high school students, said Dignadice.
For this year, Capitol and RAFI aim to build 10 multi-story school buildings in towns where there are "critical classroom problems."
Aside from Carmen and Catmon, recipient towns also include San Remigio, San Fernando, Compostela, Daanbantayan, Barili, Sogod, Santa Fe, and Madridejos.
Davide, RAFI, DepEd and mayors of the recipient towns signed the memorandum of agreement for the implementation of the school building project February of this year.