LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Legislative caretaker Eric Go Yap of ACT-CIS party-list has filed proposals seeking to establish 11 integrated schools in the province to motivate learners to pursue their education after graduating from elementary.
Yap through his chief of staff, Kevin See, has informed the Benguet Schools Division Office of the proposal that aims to upgrade 11 schools in remote areas of the province to integrated schools.
Under the DepEd guidelines, an integrated school offers kindergarten, elementary, junior, and senior high school education.
The 11 elementary schools proposed to be upgraded into integrated schools are the Cagui-ing Elementary School in Atok; Palidan ES in Bakun; Lengaoan ES in Buguias; Ballay ES and Kabayan Central School in Kabayan; Tacadang ESl in Kibungan; Gumatdang ES, Tocmo ES, and Virac ES in Itogon; Kiwas ES in Tuba and Pontino ES in Tublay.
“Considering the geographical terrain and the distance of communities to schools that offer secondary education, many graduates of elementary education do not want to walk kilometers to reach schools that offer secondary education. We want to address such concerns, thus the bills by Yap,” See said.
“We do not want our school children to be tired when reaching their schools and when they go home, which they endure during the whole school year.”
See has informed educators in Benguet recently that Yap claimed that the proposals will ensure additional funds for the construction of more school buildings and facilities, aside from increasing the number of teaching and non-teaching personnel in these 11 elementary schools.
Access to quality education is one of the primary thrusts of governance in the province over the past decades.
The past years, the province has topped all 77 provinces nationwide in the Philippine Human Development Index, which measures the gains of provinces in terms of income, literacy and life expectancy.
Yap, meanwhile, vowed to fund the proposed two-story and six-classroom Indigenous Peoples Education center as requested by the Benguet DepEd Division Office.
The proposed IPEd center features a hall for events, and an exhibit room for IP-related materials and references featuring the diverse cultures of ethnic groups in Benguet. – Harley F. Palangchao
