SM Foundation turns over new school building in Batangas
DepEd and SM group representatives led by SM Foundation executive director for Education Programs Carmen Linda Atayde and School Building head Juris Soliman at the official turnover of the school building.
Over 21 million students have enrolled for the school year 2023-2024,
with Region 4A logging the most enrollments at over three million. The school year was also met with challenges as the country reported a classroom deficit reaching 159,000.
San Antonio Elementary School, situated in one of Batangas' most populous municipalities, has been affected by the longstanding challenge of classroom shortage.
"Sa sobrang dami po ng aming estudyante, hindi po namin ma-provide ang accommodation na nararapat para sa mga bata. Meron po kaming 1,550 learners last school year at 21 classrooms, kaya't kulang po talaga kami ng 22 classrooms (With so many students, we can't provide adequate accommodation for the children. We had 1,550 learners and 21 classrooms, so we really lack 22 classrooms more)," SAES principal Joy Obreo said.
SAES utilized class shifting to be able to attend to all the schoolkids. However, this, too, posed a problem.
"Ang shifting of classes po kasi namin ay nagra-run po from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. 'Yung six hours po kasi ng bata, kulang na kulang para magkaroon ng sapat na interaction ang students at teachers (The class shifts ran from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. But the six hours are too short for adequate interactions between students and teachers)," Obreo said.
The Department of Education and SM group representatives led by SM Foundation executive director for Education Programs Carmen Linda Atayde and School Building head Juris Soliman sought to address this problem by erecting a new school building for SAES.
Recently, SM, an active partner of the DepEd's Adopt-A-School Program, turned over the two-floor, four-classroom school building to SAES. Each of the classrooms is well-equipped with armchairs, including left-handed ones, wall fans and concave whiteboards.
The building is equipped with PWD-friendly facilities — from ramps to accessible restrooms with handrails. SM Foundation also set up a reading nook in an area with high student traffic to encourage learning, along with a handwashing facility accessible to the SAES community to protect students and staff from infections and foster a healthy learning environment.