New building will decongest school

BACOLOD City Schools Superintendent Dr. Gemma Ledesma said the proposed construction of the Education Training and Center School (ETCS) building at the two-hectare property of the City Government at the Reclamation Area will help decongest the school, which has over 2,000 pupils.

Ledesma said Bacolod is the first city to avail of the matching deal with the Department of Education (DepEd) after Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Education Secretary Armin Luistro entered into a memorandum of agreement for the 50/50 scheme on February 9, 2012.

She said that under the agreement, the city will construct 24 classrooms, while DepEd will construct another 24 classrooms.

The plan to construct a three-storey ETCS building is to decongest ETCS 1 so that classes will be only one shift, she added.

Ledesma said they have scheduled two shifts -- the first shift from 6 a.m. to noon, and the second shift from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. -- in order to accommodate all the students.

"We pity the children because they have to wake up as early as 4 a.m. to be able to come to school early when they are supposed to be growing up and need enough sleep," she said.

Ledesma said Mayor Leonardia tried hard to look for funds, and they are happy that the funds for the construction of the school are now available.

She said there is already a winning bidder and once the site is ready, they will have the groundbreaking ceremony.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro decided to call the project as ETCS 1, Ledesma said.

The data for the computation of the number of classrooms was based on the enrollment of ETCS 1 last year, she said, adding the school has over 2,000 pupils.

Ledesma said the building that will be left vacant by ETCS 1 will be divided between and given to ETCS 2 and 3.

Meanwhile, Ledesma said ETCS 1, 2 and 3 and the Rizal Elementary School block can accommodate about 10,000 pupils.