There are 114 totally damaged classrooms in the Cordillera during the onslaught of Typhoon Egay, according to the Department of Education-Cordillera.
Based on DepEd-CAR’s Rapid Assessment of Damages Report (Radar) as of July 27, Abra has recorded the highest damaged classrooms with 102; Apayao, Ifugao, and Baguio City have listed three classrooms each; Benguet has two and Mountain Province with one damaged classroom.
The Abra division also has reported the most classrooms with minor damage at 202, Mountain Province with 20 followed by Benguet and Baguio City with 13 and 12 classrooms.
There are a total of 146 classrooms with major damages with Abra having 116, while the other schools’ divisions recorded below 10 classrooms. Kalinga has notsubmitted reports yet.
In the same report, the region’s infrastructure damages to classrooms include 161 damaged toilets and 114 damaged hand washing facilities with all the eight schools’ divisions reporting infra damages due to the strong typhoon.
The number of affected learners are 365,117; affected schools are 391 where 101 schools reported infra damage and 381 schools reported with non-infra damages.
The non-infra damages include destroyed school furniture at 4,366, damaged learning references at 64,069 and damaged computer equipment at 367 with Abra reporting the most damages of three, especially at the flood-prone areas of the province.
The number of damages might increase in the coming days as only 391 schools or 21 percent have completed their damage reports according to DepEd-CAR.
In the report of DepEd-Baguio, an estimated damage worth P1.114 million for 23 schools with 41 classrooms, 39 other Dep-Ed facilities, and 310 damaged learning materials.
The schools’ division of Baguio City also mourns the loss of Noel Lopez Jr., 16, a grade 10 Special Program in the Arts Learner from Pines City National High School, one of the casualties of the typhoon.
The student’s house was hit by a landslide due to heavy rains brought by the typhoon on July 26. His parents survived the incident with injuries. – Ofelia C. Empian
