ZAMBOANGA CITY, 16 April 2008 — The US Agency for International Development has partnered with Petron Foundation to construct and rehabilitate more than 160 school rooms in the troubled southern region of Mindanao.
USAID and Petron agreed to provide $1.25 million each to help alleviate classroom shortages and improve access to basic education in Mindanao, home to more than 16 million people.
US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney and Petron Chairman Nicasio Alcantara signed the agreement on Monday at the Petron Building in Makati City.
The partnership aims to address a classroom shortage across the country.
The project “will equip new and refurbished classrooms with water and electricity, an average of 25 school desks each, plus teachers’ tables and chairs, blackboards, cabinets, fans, clocks and toilets,” a US Embassy statement said.
It said the USAID’s Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills (EQuALLS) project has conducted an assessment on the need for new classrooms in communities in Mindanao based on current and projected enrollment data in relation to the existing number of classrooms.
The EQuALLS assessment has identified areas for construction and rehabilitation across 35 municipalities and 4 cities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Western and Southern Mindanao.
Undersecretary Ramon Bacani, of the Philippines Department of Education, has committed to maintain the school buildings after the construction and refurbishment.
