Yolanda areas’ public schools still waiting for repairs

The devastation left by super typhoon ‘Haiyan.’ Richard Whitcombe / Shutterstock

MANILA — Six months after Super Typhoon Yolanda devastated areas in Visayas and less than a month before the school year opens, public schools in affected areas are still waiting to be repaired.

Though classes are already set on June 2, almost 200,000 elementary and high school students are still currently waiting for the 1,828 makeshift and prefabricated classrooms and 2,555 tents.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) told the joint congressional oversight committee on public expenditures that the request of P2B for school repairs in the said areas was already sent to the Office of the President (OP) last month.

Patrick Salamat, the Department of Education public information chief, said in a Philippine Star report that the rehabilitation of the schools was already started.

“In instances where construction is still ongoing, the temporary learning spaces we’ve set up last school year will continue to be used.”

A data from DepEd stated that of the 2,172 totally damaged classrooms, only 764 have been constructed a total of 5,007 classrooms out of the 9,420 partially damaged have been repaired.

“We’re building back better,” he said.

“This means that the new classrooms are more disaster-resilient. It’s easy to build a structure, but our goal in rehabilitation is to build something that can withstand calamities like Yolanda in the future.”