BAGUIO CITY — The Department of Education (DepEd) needs to complete a total of 1,591 new classrooms for the Cordillera region before the year ends or risk budget cuts in the next years.
“We are tied because of the President’s order, which compels agencies in government to implement all projects promptly and the budget allocated used on the same year to prevent budget cut for the succeeding years,” Engineer Christopher Hadsan, DepEd Cordillera’s engineer-in-charge for physical facilities, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a recent interview.
Hadsan said the Cordillera region was allotted a budget of PHP1.475 billion for 2018, covering 83 sites across Cordillera's six provinces and two cities, for a total of 480 new classrooms.
However, he said 1,111 classrooms, which were started to be built in 2014, stay unfinished. For what reason, the official declined to explain, except that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) "had committed to act on it with urgency".
Hadsan said both the DepEd and the DPWH had their second coordinating meeting for the year last May 30 and decided to exert best efforts to complete the 1,111 unfinished classrooms, ideally by December 2018.
This brings the expected number of new classrooms to come to the region this year to 1,591, Hadsan said.
Hadsan said the DPWH had committed to mandate all contractors to finish their contracts and complete their unfinished projects within the year.
Meanwhile, DepEd Cordillera records show that a total of 1,353 new classrooms were added in the region, when public schools opened last June 4.
Records show that these classrooms were completed in a span of four years.
The new classrooms were spread in Abra, 143; Apayao, 156; Baguio, 146; Benguet, 249; Ifugao, 253; Kalinga, 132; Mountain Province, 165; and Tabuk, 109.
Based on DepEd records, Cordillera received a budget allocation of PHP1.024 billion for classroom construction in 2004, PHP798 million in 2015, PHP1.169 billion in 2016, and PHP2.143 billion in 2017.
The region was allotted PHP5.134 billion for classroom construction in a span of four years.
DepEd Cordillera Regional Director May Eclar, in an earlier press briefing, said that during the first week of the opening of classes this month, education officials in the region visited the different schools, including those in far-flung barangays.
During the said visits, Eclar said they had found the average classroom-student ratio as one classroom for 30 students in the elementary and one classroom for 45 students in high school.
Some schools, she added, had a classroom-student ratio of 1:19, as these schools have small student population.
She noted that it is the extreme opposite in urban areas like Baguio City, Tabuk City in Kalinga, and La Trinidad in Benguet, where public schools have high numbers of enrollees.
Eclar said that based on the data gathered on the first week of school, there were already 184,449 public school students around Cordillera. More are expected to come this week, she added, as this has been the practice of some residents, especially the far-flung communities.
She added that by August, when some private schools start for this year, the total number of students in elementary and high school in both public and private schools is expected to reach 422,973 for the entire Cordillera. (PNA)
