PALO, Leyte”•Education officials in Eastern Visayas have remained thankful to both public and private stakeholders in the region after it solicited over P200 million in donations and signed 38 agreements in this year’s partnerships in education roadshow.
“Thirty-eight perfected memoranda of agreement worth P200 million during the Regional Road Show for Partnerships. Thank you USec. Tonisito Umali for choosing DepEd 8 as host for the Visayas,” said Ramir B. Uytico, regional director of the Department of Education in Eastern Visayas.
He also lauded Tacloban City Schools Division Superintendent Thelma Quitalig “for the world-class hosting” of the event.
Eden A. Dadap, education project development officer IV in the region, also called the event a “milestone” as they did not expect the presence of over 300 participants during its launching on Friday, May 4.
“Isn’t this a blessing?” said Dadap.
Dadap told Manila Standard that top donors of the event included City Savings Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, local government units, and private individuals, among others.
Umali of the DepEd’s Legislative Liaison Office, External Partnerships Service, and School Sports was joined by Leyte Gov. Leopoldo Petilla, municipal mayors, and officials from the 13 school divisions coming from six provinces in the region.
The roadshow aimed to strengthen existing partnerships among stakeholders and generate donations to address the educational gaps in the region particularly on the Adopt-a-School and Brigada Eskwela programs of the over 4, 000 public schools in the region.
Public schools in Eastern Visayas, with over 1 million students, continue to be beset by various educational problems like congested classrooms, decreasing enrollment among elementary students, malnutrition, lack of non-teaching staff and Alternative Learning System faculty.
They also face the lack of high school campuses in far-flung barangays, lack of school budget, low performance in the National Achievement Test, lack of data-driven system to track performances of schools, and high dropout rate, among others.