CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – The city government’s aggressiveness in promoting education as one of the priorities of Mayor Oscar Moreno has resulted to Cagayan de Oro’s winning its second Seal of Good Education Governance (SGEG).
To date, the city government under his administration poured in some P2.5 billion to education infrastructure projects, such as the construction of classrooms and school buildings.
Since then, the city government was able to build 508 classrooms and establish 13 new high school campuses mostly in barangays where there was a shortage of classroom and school facilities.
In a statement, Moreno said he is “humbled and happy” with the SGEG award which was given by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and Synergeia Foundation.
These projects, he said, were funded by the one percent share of the real property tax that the city collects.
Even without the award, Moreno said it was his goal to build more classrooms although he admitted that he never expected that he could construct more than 500 classrooms in just five years.
He said he would do his best but “not be too ambitious or conservative in setting his goal “.
“If I target something, I might end up too ambitious or I might end up too conservative, so instead of targeting, I just do my best,” he said.
He said never realized that in so short a time, he had succeeded not just in building more classrooms but in establishing high school campuses.
“We realized that there is still so many things that need to be done in the field of education, so we keep on pushing,” Moreno said.
Another factor that has contributed to this success, he said, was the ” collaborative efforts ” of the private and public sector through the Local School Board (LSB).
Under his administration, the LSB has been composed of representatives from the education department, Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Chinese Chamber of Commerce, private primary and secondary schools, academe, parent-teacher association, and the interfaith communities.
Moreno said it was the LSB who runs and decides the direction of the city’s education program. (davaotoday.com)
