DepEd receives school furniture made from confiscated logs
- Friday, 11 February 2011
- Written by Calamba Super Administrator
Six public schools in the 2nd District of Quezon Province will receive fifty arm chairs each after a number of confiscated logs by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) were converted into school furniture.Through a request made by Quezon Province 2nd district Representative Irvin Alcala to the DENR, a total of 6,922 board feet of confiscated logs were donated to the Department of Education in October 2010 for conversion into school chairs. “As part of our mandate to provide quality education for all Filipinos, we have received clear and emphatic marching orders from President Benigno Aquino III to fast track the measures in addressing the learning resource gaps for almost 25 Million children under our care. And we recognize that that challenging task requires partnerships and engagement of the various stakeholders, hence we greatly appreciate this initiative from Cong. Alcala and the rest of his team,” said Education Secretary Armin Luistro.According to Alcala’s office, from the total logs donated, only about 3,000 board feet were utilized because more than half of the logs could no longer be used. From these, about 320 arm chairs were made and six schools within the congressional district were chosen as beneficiaries. These include Talisay ES (Tiaong), Mayapyap ES (Candelaria), Loob ES (San Antonio), San Mateo ES (Dolores), Bukal ES (Sariaya), and Ransohan ES (Lucena City).“Getting everyone at the community setting engage in education initiatives will create a great impact in the education reforms the government is pushing for. The guiding principle is that educating our young is a responsibility not solely of DepEd, rather, it is a noble duty that must be shared by everyone in the community,” Luistro said as he expressed his deep appreciation to local government executives who make education their priority. In the few months that Luistro has led the department, DepEd has already received a deluge of offers from various groups and individuals in support of the President’s education agenda.
Just recently, the Leagues of Cities, Municipalities, and Provinces of the Philippines have each entered into a memorandum of agreement with DepEd to help in the building of classrooms under the counter-parting program. The department has also initiated new partnership modalities on top of its successful Adopt-A-School Program to keep with the country’s commitment to democratize access to quality education as a member of UNESCO that has pledged to meet the Education For All (EFA) goals as well as our Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets by 2015. Luistro was happy to note that the support the department is getting goes well with this year’s celebration of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV + 10) in the Philippines which carries the global theme, “Volunteering for the MDGs.” As more individuals, groups, and organizations join the bandwagon of support in education, the DepEd officials are confident that the department can close the resource gaps in two years if the fund matching trend continues and if it finds more public and private partners who can come up with creative ways to fund learning resources. Turn-over ceremony of the arm chairs was held on Friday, February, 4 at the Southern Luzon State University, Tiaong Campus.
Submitted by A.P. Mariposque
