Eastern Visayas’ inclusion in government school projects sought

CATARMAN, Northern Samar -- The Provincial Government here wants the inclusion of Eastern Visayas for public-private partnership school building projects that will be implemented in three regions this year.

Northern Samar Governor Paul Daza said the classrooms are really needed in poorer areas like in his province, adding the non-inclusion of Eastern Visayas in the project will be detrimental on the government’s effort to achieve Millennium Development Goals on universal education.

The project, which covers Ilocos, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon, will involve the design, financing and construction of about 9,300 one-storey and two-storey classrooms, including furniture and fixture.

The project aims to supplement the current program of the Department of Education in reducing classroom backlog.

“I talked to DepEd (Department of Education) Secretary Armin Luistro to include Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) and Northern Samar on the PPP project where the private sector will build and maintain classrooms. The model is that the private sector will construct and the government will pay them in the next five to seven years,” said Daza, who is chairman of the regional peace and order council.

The local chief executive said he is positive that the request will be granted by the DepEd main office.

The DepEd regional office reported that for this school year, the region needs some 2,000 classrooms to accommodate about one million pupils and students. For classrooms, elementary public schools need 869 new classrooms and 1,184 in the secondary level for this school year.

The PPP undertaking is expected to build 2,261 school sites, 2,528 school buildings with 9,332 classrooms in three regions.

The project has three components, which include classroom buildings, toilets, and classroom furniture. It will be awarded through competitive public bidding as PPP project, in accordance with applicable laws including the built-operate-transfer scheme.

DepEd had set aside a budget of P1.5 billion to P2 billion for servicing the financing requirements of classroom construction.

The region’s current net enrollment ratio on primary education is 87.3, way below than the current target of 97.1, and 100 for 2015. Northern Samar’s current net enrollment ratio is 96.7. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)