The province of Surigao del Sur needs more classrooms and teachers to meet the growing educational need as the population in the province is fast increasing.
This was emphasized by Surigao del Sur 1st District Representative Prospero A. Pichay, Jr., in an interview.
“My priorities for next year will be on education and health,” Pichay said.
Pichay added that the new budgeting scheme of the government, which is on a cash basis, added difficulties in getting more classrooms to build and new teachers to hire.
“Before we used to get around 20 to 30 classrooms. Now we only got five classrooms,” Pichay said.
He emphasized that the population in Surigao del Sur is fast increasing, considering that the province is among the fastest-growing community in the country.
“In 2017, we have 200 new items for teachers in elementary and high school. This year we only got around 20 items for teachers,” Pichay said.
Next year, he said Surigao del Sur will be allotted with a small number of new items for teachers.
“I cannot understand the logic. We have an increasing population but instead of hiring more we are not hiring enough teachers. Instead of building school buildings, we are not building a lot of school buildings,” Pichay added.
He is also proposing for representations with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the matter.
“We need to enlighten the people at the DBM. The secretary of DepEd should make stronger representation with DBM that we have an increasing population and we need more teachers and school buildings, at the same time without sacrificing the quality of education,” Pichay said.
He added he will file a resolution early next year to invite the DBM and DepEd to discuss properly concerns on education particularly on the hiring of new teachers and the building of additional classrooms that are needed in provinces.
On health, Pichay said President Rodrigo Duterte already signed into law the increase of the hospital bed capacity of the Adela Serra Ty Memorial Medical Center from 200 to 500 beds.
He said that with the signing of the law, the hospital will have an increase in allocation next year in the amount of P50 million.
Pichay said the next step would be the increase in the number of doctors and personnel in the said hospital to provide more health services to the people of Surigao del Sur. (PNA)
