EDUCATION Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua said the government is conducting geohazard mapping for schools nationwide to determine which facilities lie in danger zones.
Pascua said this would help determine whether a school needs to be relocated to safer grounds.
The mapping is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
“In the Cordillera, there are a lot of geohazard areas,” said Pascua.
Pascua said the result of the mapping will be used as basis for any adjustment in the department’s site acquisition fund for 2020 once the budget for education will be prepared and deliberated.
Pascua said DepEd has no funds with which to buy properties and is only given a budget for titling procedures.
The department relies on property donations from local government units and the private sector and, thus, could not choose the site of their facilities.
“We just accept the donations and build,” added Pascua.
Pascua said relocation of confirmed buildings sitting on hazard zones will be a joint task of the local government unit, the Department of Public Works and Highways and DepEd.
Local government units will be tasked to identify safe areas where the schools can be built while the DPWH is tasked to build roads and bid out buildings to be accessed, The DepEd have funding approved by both Congress and the Senate.
Pascua said another problem facing the department is funding classroom buildings for construction and bidding by the DPWH which originally hit a snag as contractors refused to bid on classroom structures resulting to massive backlog by the education sector.
DPWH contractors found DepEd projects unattractive as the cost of building school buildings have remained the same notwithstanding the location of the school.
The cost of building schools in rural areas is higher as transport and utility costs are steeper than those in urban areas.
Pascua said the problem is being addressed in a bid to reduce the backlog of the department and make construction of schools competitive and viable to contractors.
Pascua said costing has now been adjusted to fit the needs of construction taking into consideration location and its corresponding needs.