TENTS that serve as makeshift classrooms in northern Cebu are crammed with students who continue to bear the brunt of the delay in the repair of classrooms damaged by supertyphoon Yolanda.
Classes in all levels resumed last Monday but Daanbantayan Mayor Augusto Corro said only 40 out of 500 damaged classrooms were repaired. Most schools are using tents donated by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI).
“Sakripisyo lang sa gyud ang mga estudyante pero madala ra man. Padayon ang klase,” he told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview. (The students just have to manage.)
Because of the situation, school administrators are forced to change class schedules to ensure that classes continue.
Pledges from private donors were received for the repair of around 60 percent of the damaged classrooms. However, Corro said the repairs might go well beyond this year.
The repair of school buildings was included in the provincial government’s P12.2-billion recovery and rehabilitation plan approved by the national government last week.
The situation is the same for schools in Madridejos town in Bantayan Island, said Mayor Salvador Dela Fuente.
Dela Fuente, who visited the Capitol yesterday, said they rely solely on NGOs for the repair of the structures since the funds have yet to arrive from the national government.
“Right now, the classrooms are still not usable. We just set up temporary tents for them to use,” he said.
In Medellin, Mayor Ricardo Ramirez said the private sector fixed 18 out of 20 elementary schools and all four of their high schools. “Where is the money from the Department of Education?” he asked.
Based on earlier reports, DepEd has yet to start the construction of around 2,000 classrooms in Yolanda-hit regions seven months after the supertyphoon made landfall last year. The bidding process at the DepEd division field offices was delayed because they needed to redesign the structures to make them more disaster-resilient.
The new design was finalized last April.
DepEd estimates it needs P2.9 billion to construct 2,313 new classrooms in the Yolanda-affected areas aside from the funds needed to repair 18,000 affected classrooms.
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