Young: 400M needed for construction, repair of school buildings

Cebu City Councilor Joy Young

CEBU CITY, Philippines–The Local School Board is asking for a P400 million allocation from the Cebu City government for the construction of a new classroom and the repair and improvement of existing ones, said Councilor Joy Augustus Young, the deputy mayor for scholarship and education.

The budget request will be spent on the construction of one kinder classroom, the installation of a sanitary system for six existing classrooms, repair of the ceiling of seven classrooms, electrical rewiring for seven classrooms and the installation of a concrete stairs for the Gothong National High School.

Young said that the proposed projects will be charged to the city’s Special Education Funds (SEF).

“We are one of the few cities in the Philippines that always improve and repair our schools. This is for our students’ convenience,” said Young.

To safeguard the usage of SEF from abuses, Young said that any new construction projects and repair of existing school buildings will require City Council approval prior to its implementation.

Young told Cebu Daily News Digital in an interview today, February 11, that they already hired a total of 118 job order (JO) employees in January to work on the project implementation.

JOs will be paid separately from school board funds, said Young, who added that the hiring process was not be affected by the election ban on the hiring of government employees which was implemented starting on January 13.

Young said that as of today, February 11, at least 80  public schools in Cebu City already made a formal request for school building construction or repair with the Local School Board./dcb