By: Ina Hernando Malipot
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said yesterday that around R4 billion is needed to rehabilitate, restore, and repair damaged schools in the Marawi City crisis.
Speaking at the Manila Bulletin’s “Hot Seat,” Briones said that all 59 schools in Marawi were affected and about 20 of them are “totally destroyed, pounded to the ground” while the rest need “major repairs.”
Briones said that as soon as they get clearance from the military, she will visit the city to assess the damage in schools.
“I’m going there myself because we have to look at the state of the facilities and school buildings and it’s not just these buildings, the laboratories, books, and others,” she said.
Data from the Department of Education showed that there are 27,673 learners from Marawi enrolled in various schools nationwide. “They are scattered all over the country. Name a region and you have a Marawi child enrolled there and they are well integrated,” Briones said.
Meanwhile, drug testing among select students, teachers, and non-teaching personnel of the DepEd would be conducted after it was approved by President Duterte and the Cabinet.
“When we presented it to the Cabinet, we viewed drug addiction as a disease and an as a health issue so like any disease, it has to be diagnosed,” Briones said. DepEd, she said, will work closely with the Department of Health on this.
Briones refused to disclose if the drug testing has started.
