Bacolod City Schools Division Superintendent, Gemma Ledesma, said the proposed construction of the Education Training and Center School at the 2-hectare property of the city government at the Reclamation Area in Bacolod City will decongest the ETCS 1 of more than 2,000 pupils.

Ledesma said Bacolod City is the first city to avail of the matching agreement with the Department of Education after Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Education Secretary Armin Luistro entered into a memorandum of agreement on February 9, 2012.

She said that, under the 50/50 scheme, the city will construct 24 classrooms and the DepEd will also construct another 24 to make a total of 48, she said.

The construction of the 3-storey ETCS building is intended to decongest ETCS 1 so that classes will be held in only one shift, she added.

At present, Ledesma said, classes are held in two shifts, the first from 6 a.m. to 12 noon and the second from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., to accommodate all the students.

“We pity the children because they have to wake up as early as 4 a.m. to be able to come to school when they are growing up and need enough sleep,” she said.

Ledesma said Mayor Leonardia had tried hard to look for funds for this purpose and they are happy that the funds are now available for the construction of the school.

She said there is already a winning bidder (Wilkinson Construction) and once the site is ready, they will hold the groundbreaking ceremony.

Ledesma said Education Secretary Armin Luistro has decided that the project will be called ETCS 1.

The computation of the number of classrooms was based on data on the enrollment of ETCS 1 last year, which was over 2,000, she said.

Ledesma said the building that will be vacated by ETCS 1, will be used by students of ETCS 2 and 3.

Ledesma said ETCS 1, 2 and 3 and the Rizal Elementary School block can accommodate about 10,000 pupils.*CGS

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