DAGUPAN CITY, July 28 (PNA)– Mayor Belen Fernandez thanked the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) of which she is the press relation officer, for honoring her with a Batch Valedictorian Award for her role as focal person for the Senior High School (SHS) program under the K to 12.
The award was conferred by LCP Secretary General Delmar De Guzman, mayor of Marikina City, during the 62nd LCP General Assembly at Crowne Plaza. Manila Galleria on Friday.
On the same occasion, LCP also conferred an award to the city of Dagupan as the “most resourceful city of the Philippines” as far as the preparation for the SHS program is concerned.
The SHS is a City Leaders project of LCP.
“I thank LCP for the honor given me and the city of Dagupan. I believe in the K fo 12. Ever since, I had no doubt that the government is prepared for this program,” said Fernandez.
As focal person for the senior high school program, Fernandez was tasked with the work of mentoring other cities in the Philippines on how to meet the challenges posed by the SHS program as some still appear to doubt the readiness of the country in implementing the SHS.
In her role as focal person on SHS, she is working closely with Education Secretary Armin Luistro.
Fernandez said that in the case of Dagupan, it will soon be ready to implement the SHS although the whole city would be needing a total of 139 additional classrooms to accommodate the incoming Grade 11 students.
Some of these classrooms are now being built in the city with the help of various sectors, some from the private and mostly from the public sector.
She said the city government had allocated Php 18.5 million to the Dagupan City National High School to be used in building the needed classrooms, at least Php 12 million for the envisioned three-storey Arts and Science building.
This is the biggest budget so far allocated by the city government to DCNHS ever since, she added.
Fernandez compared notes with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and found that 70 other classrooms will be built at DCNHS for the senior high school program, all from the budget of DepEd.
Other school buildings will be built by the Philippine Games and Amusement Corporation (PAGCOR) through the initiative of Fourth District Congresswoman Gina de Venecia to be built in other parts of the city.
Meanwhile, the Security Bank Foundation is now building a two-storey school building, comprising of eight classrooms at the DCNHS as part of its corporate social responsibility ((PNA)