New school buildings welcome Southern Leyte students

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte, June 6 -- At least 10 new school buildings for secondary students have been opened this week in Southern Leyte, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has reported. 

Letecia Olarte, DPWH construction section chief, said their office worked double time to complete several school buildings before June 5 as campuses welcomed the first batch of Grade 12 learners under the Kindergarten and 12 years (K to 12) of basic education. 

“Each building are resilient to strong typhoons, earthquakes and other natural calamities to ensure safety of students and the community,” Olarte said.

Recipients of new school buildings under the 2016 allocations are Sogod National High School (NHS) in Sogod town, Villa Jacinta National Vocational HS in Macrohon town, San Juan NHS in San Juan town, Don Augustion F. Escaño NHS in Tomas Oppus town.

San Ricardo NHS in San Ricardo town, Santa Paz NHS in San Francisco town, Pintuyan National Vocational HS in Pintuyan town, Liloan National Technical Vocational National School in Liloan town, and Himbangan NHS in San Ricardo town.

Each single to two-storey school building has an average of six to eight classrooms. These projects, which started September 2016, were funded through the PHP251.96 million outlay from the Department of Education.

“We still have six ongoing projects and one have not yet started, but we are doing our best to finish these projects immediately,” Olarte added.

Among the setbacks in the timely construction of classrooms are unfavorable weather, failed soil test, and logistical hurdles.

On the first day of academic year, the education department reported that Southern Leyte’s public schools welcomed 37,077 Kindergarten to Grade 6 pupils, 18,574 junior high school students, and 2,899 senior high school learners.(DPWH-PR/PNA)