GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 10 Feb) – The city government is targeting to deliver around 7,000 armchairs to local public schools this year in a bid to further reduce the shortage of armchairs in the area.
City Mayor Ronnel Rivera said Tuesday they have contracted the production of additional armchairs to address the deficit and projected needs of various public elementary and secondary schools in the city for the upcoming school year.
He said the production of the armchairs is already ongoing through the city’s flagship “Edukasyon Mo, Kabuhayan Ko” program.
“We will be distributing an additional 3,720 school armchairs by the end of March,” the mayor said in a statement.
He said they have allocated an initial P2.6 million for the production of the armchairs that would cost P700 each.
Last week, the city government delivered some 128 armchairs to the Upper Labay Elementary School.
The school is the first recipient this year of the armchairs program among the city’s 95 public elementary and high schools.
The city government started delivering armchairs to local public schools in October 2013 in partnership with the RD Foundation Inc., which is operated by the mayor’s family.
The project is a component of the Alay sa Kabataan Lahat ng Alaga at Talino (AKLAT) program of the city mayor’s office.
AKLAT mainly aims to improve the performance of schools and schoolchildren through the provision of classrooms, books and other basic facilities by way of public-private partnerships.
In support of the initiative, the mayor and RD Foundation jointly launched the “Edukasyon Mo, Kabuhayan Ko” program, which tapped the city’s persons with disabilities sector in the production of the armchairs.
The mayor pursued the initiative after it came out during an education summit in 2013 that local public schools had a shortage of 14,000 armchairs.
Last year, the city government already delivered 4,000 armchairs to various public schools in the area.
Rivera earlier said he is targeting to fully address the problem before the end of his current term in 2016.