MikeLigalig.com

By Minerva BC Newman

Cebu, Philippines (1 December) -- The Adopt-A-School program (ASP) of the Department of Education has generated about P4.5B worth of program interventions in terms of donations and pledges as of September 2007.

DepEd secretary Jesli Lapus reported that from 2000-2006, the private sector has given the ASP some P2.1B worth of support that came in various forms and packages.

The two largest areas where most donations were poured in were Technology Support to Education and health and Nutrition with 1.2 billion and 2.3 billion respectively, Lapus added.

Lapus disclosed that for infrastructure and physical facilities for instance, over 100 million pesos worth was received. Some P100 million was also received for all learning support and direct assistance to the schools. For teacher training and development, P90 million and P700 million for donor-driven and combine packages.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in her keynote speech during the national convention of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines held at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu recently, she said that for every Filipino family, education is the central guiding value as key to the next generation.

"Education is the best gift of a leader, a nation to a child," that is why most local real estate taxes go to the education fund, the President added.

Recently, the DepEd honored 93 of its private sector partners and thanked them for their contribution in improving the state of the country's education.

Secretary Lapus said that the private sector and government partnerships have provided the public schools with more resources and have solved some problems on infrastructure, increasing drop-out rates, poor health an nutrition, poverty and the decreasing over-all quality of education in the Philippines.

As can be recalled RA 8525: The Adopt-A-School Act of 1998, allows private entities to assist all public schools in the country and in return, can avail of 150% tax incentives, promote goodwill in its community and strengthen its corporate image. (PIA-Cebu)

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