COUNCILOR Pilar Braga reported that the Davao City Government established 50 new public schools all over the city last year, including in far-flung areas like Paquibato District.
Braga, who chairs the education committee of the City Council, said the expansion of new public schools in the city is part of Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio's agenda for the education sector.
The councilor said the City Government continues to work hard to add more schools and classrooms since the population is growing yearly.
"It is never enough. That is why it is the priority of the city mayor's agenda, which is education. And when we say education, we are focusing in the infrastructure, which means construction of more school buildings and classrooms," Braga said Thursday, June 6, during the iSpeak forum at the City Hall of Davao.
Braga also said the school buildings are designed to accommodate more students, with an approximated size of 50 to 80 students.
However, she said the number is not ideal, saying the normal classroom ratio should cater 30 to 40 students per classroom.
Based on the data given to her by the Department of Education (DepEd), there are a total 343,488 students enrolled in the school year 2019-2020. It is composed of 32,610 kindergarten students, 186,921 elementary students, 106,494 junior high school students and 17,463 senior high school students.
Meanwhile, she said there are already 11 public school building that are ready to be turned over.
"We are just waiting for the availability of the mayor because she will be personally turning it over to Deped and to the Division of City Schools," Braga said.