Education for the poor still Mayor Sara’s priority

Davao City continues to invest in the education sector as the number of city scholars increased over the years under the Educational Benefit System Unit (EBSU).

“For the 2nd Semester of School Year 2018 to 2019, a total of 1,595 City Government Scholars were accommodated under the EBSU,” Mayor Sara Duterte said during her State of the City Address (SOCA) held at the Sangguniang Panlungsod Monday.

Education is one of the priority programs of the mayor to help poor children finish college and achieved their dreams.

Data shows an increase of 536 EBSU scholars across various disciplines this school year compared to the 1,059 scholars in the previous school year. The number of scholars further increased to 1,904 scholars for the current semester.

The expanded medical school scholarship, which the city started to offer when Mayor Sara started her term in 2016, has already produced three doctors. The medical scholars who hail from the Indigenous People (IP) communities passed the licensure examinations given last September 2019.

The city did not only offer scholarships grants to poor children, Sara also sees to it that schools get more classrooms. For the past three years, the city has constructed 112 classrooms across all levels and sites. A total of 77 classrooms are under the 2017 Special Education Fund (SEF) while 35 classrooms are under the 2018 SEF.

As of September 2019, the infrastructure projects funded under SEF 2017 and 2018 are at 90% and 78% completion, respectively.

“For the year 2020, we will continue to put funds for the construction of more classrooms that will help us in attaining zero backlogs for our children’s classroom needs,” Sara said.

In the coming weeks, Sara said the Local School Board is set to approve a budget of P650 million, of which an approximate P270 million will be used to fund classroom construction in the different areas of the city.

The mayor also cited local and international partners who helped build more classrooms for public school students with a special mention of the support from the People’s Republic of China last year.

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Philippines, through the effort of Ambassador Zhao Jinhua, allocated funds for the construction of 13 modern 2-story, 4-classroom buildings in select public schools in the city. Eleven (11) of these school buildings have already been completed and are now used by the students.

She said the Department of Education (DepEd) Davao also received assistance in putting up five school buildings with four classrooms each from EMCOR, a company that had its beginnings in Davao City. Four of the five buildings are scheduled for handover later this month.

There is an ongoing discussion on the possibility of utilizing the existing DepEd infrastructure specifically the facilities of the Davao City National High School (DCNHS), and technical assistance from the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) to cater to public school Grade 12 and Alternative Learning System (ALS) graduates to operate a City College.

Sara said the construction of the infrastructure will follow whenever resources are ready.

“USEP is also looking at opening an Annex in Barangay Malabog, Paquibato District to encourage more residents in the area to go to college and to provide a more economical option for students who reside in Paquibato but currently study downtown,” she bared.

For the next three years, she said, the city will facilitate the construction of Hygiene Facilities in all schools. This will help the city to push the teaching of handwashing and proper toothbrushing to pupils and make them understand that good hygiene helps avoid and spread of diseases.

The city is also starting the program of retaining developmental pediatricians to hasten the assessment of public school children needing special education.

Sara said this will ensure that these children are allotted special education teachers by the DepEd. CIO