Press Release
June 13, 2007

KIKO BATS FOR MORE CLASSROOMS,
TEACHERS AND SCHOOL EQUIPMENT

Senate Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan today urged Malacañang to channel more attention to the shortage of classrooms, teachers and school equipment as it prepares the 2008 budget and explore innovative measures that will mitigate the crisis in education.

"We still have a classroom shortage of 29,321 this year, we still lack around 16,390 teachers and there are never enough books and school chairs for our school children. The sad fact is, government alone cannot solve the looming education crisis, that's why we need to think out of the box and employ innovative measures that can abet our efforts," Kiko said.

"Our Office, for example, has engaged in tripartite undertakings over the years to increase transparency and efficiency in our projects. When we allocated P80million for our school building project, we tapped the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. to oversee the process. We were astonished to find out that if we carry out the project in this manner, the cost of a school building is actually cut in half because there was no red tape, and everything was transparent," Kiko said.

"We also need to encourage the participation of the community parents, local officials, other sectors, in addressing education problems. In Calbayog City National High School in Western Samar , for example, strong support from all sectors including local government, parents and other institutions, resulted in excellent academic performance of students. Calbayog City National High School topped the secondary level of National Achievement Test (NAT) in 2006, largely because of the active participation of the locality. The school adopted a review session in its curriculum in preparation for the achievement exam. It also coordinated with the parents to allow their children to attend Saturday review sessions. The local government of Calbayog for its part provided review materials to the school, while teachers voluntarily taught their students on weekends. This is evidence that if everyone is ready to go the extra mile for education, we can mitigate our education problems. We should adopt this template in all our localities, not just in the area of education but in all other aspects of governance," Kiko ended.

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