THE PROVINCIAL school board of Misamis Oriental has set aside at least P9 million for the improvement of school facilities and equipment for technical, vocational, and livelihood (TVL) education.

Randolph Tortola, head of the Department of Education (DepEd) Misamis Oriental Division, said TVL is a skills-based training for students.

"There are existing ones (facilities and equipment) but, it can not accommodate all population of students, and schools may end up just teaching the theories," he said on Wednesday, March 6.

Tortola, who is also the co-chairman of provincial school board, said that the amount would boost efforts to develop students' skills.

He noted that not all students graduate from senior high school.

"All secondary schools have technology livelihood education, but not all are senior high school implementers, because some have inadequate breathable space and school buildings," he said.

Jerome Mundo, secretary of the school board, said that most of the requests they receive from public schools in the province involve the construction of classrooms and covered courts.

He said there was a time the requests were overwhelming they had to limit the projects in order to focus on granting requests that were made earlier.

"There were requests that were disapproved because the projects they asked (for) are already listed by DepEd," he said.

He explained that DepEd also has its own funds for the construction of classrooms and other projects.

Tortola, meanwhile, explained that those schools that are not covered by DepEd's priority list of projects are the provincial school board's priority projects.

The budget for these projects comes from the Special Education Fund (SEF), which is financed by real property taxes and tobacco and cigarette taxes.

According to the provincial treasurer, the province collected more than P161 million for SEF in 2018, and spent around P56 million in the same year. (Nef Luczon)