SOME 60 percent of all elementary and secondary schools in the Cordillera Region are ready for the reopening of face-to-face classes set on August 22, according to Cyrille Gaye Miranda of the Department of Education (DepEd) – Cordillera public affairs office.
Miranda said that some 1,308 or 62.73 of the 2085 schools in the region are to return to face-to-face classes next week.
629 schools will be operating under blended learning, and four will remain fully remote learning.
In Abra, 279 schools out of 353 will start full face-to-face classes next week – 181 of 206 schools in Apayao; 12 of 163 schools in Baguio City; 316 of 486 schools in Benguet; 108 of 277 schools Ifugao;153 of 200 schools in Kalinga; 189 of 281 schools in Mountain Province; and 70 of 119 schools in Tabuk City, Kalinga.
But Abra, the epicenter of last month’s Magnitude 7 earthquake, is still reeling from aftershocks. Four schools in the province are still being used as evacuation centers.
Enrique Gascon Jr., DSWD assistant director for the Cordillera, identified them as Supo National High School in Tubo, which currently housed 21 families, or 58 individuals; Sagap Elementary School in Bangued town which has taken in 86 families, or 320 residents;
Lumaba Integrated School in Ap-Apaya, Villaviciosa which still houses 19 displaced families (44 people); and Villaviciosa Central School in Poblacion with 77 families (216 people).
As of August 15, about 517 classrooms in the region were destroyed; 341 classrooms had infrastructure damage; 1,106 classrooms had partial major damage; and 1,253 had partial minor damage.
Also damaged were 376 toilets and 168 hand washing facilities, aside from furniture, learning resources, and computers.
The DepEd is still hashing out the budget for repairs and replacement of damaged schools and fixtures.
The Department of Education on Friday said P1.3 billion is needed to repair and rehabilitate the 226 schools.
In a statement, the DepEd cited Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service data, which showed damaged schools in Cordillera Administrative Region with 132, Ilocos Region with 49, Cagayan Valley with 25, Central Luzon with 18, and a school each in Calabarzon, and the National Capital Region.
The agency said 422 classrooms were destroyed while 636 others were partially damaged.
