Business fills shortages in school resources

Business fills shortages in school resourcesBy Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
August 28, 2011

Aiming to help provide schools what government can barely afford, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) has partnered with imaging company Epson to bring learning resources to public schools in Batangas.

PBSP said it was partnering with Epson CARES [Contribution to the Advancement and Restoration of Environment and Society] to build 11 Learning Resource Centers in Lipa City and fill gaps in critical school resources.

The joint undertaking, part of  PBSP’s multipronged approach to help government address school resource shortages, aims to bring desks, tables, books and other school supplies to beneficiary schools.

The project will benefit an estimated 5,503 students and some 94 teachers, PBSP said in a statement.

“This project should really be replicated because more underserved public schools are still in need of such help from the business sector,” said PBSP project officer Maria Kristia Bueno.

The partnership launched the program this month with the hand-over of library sets to San Salvador Elementary School, which has some 334 students, and Pangao Elementary School, where some 665 students are currently enrolled.

Epson president Osamu Koshiishi led hand-over rites at the schools earlier this month. Epson had funded its school supplies donation through proceeds from an earlier recycling program that collected used lead-acid batteries, PBSP said.

“[We are] so glad that Epson has a heart to raise the academic status of our youth,” said Pangao Elementary School principal Erlinda Tiquio in accepting the donation.

Other beneficiary schools of the PBSP-Epson program include Abundio, Santo Toribio, Bugtong na Pulo, San Benito Pagolingin Bata, Rizal, Malitlit-Anangi and Malagundlong Elementary Schools and Teodoro M. Kalaw Memorial School.

Long involved in the education-for-all campaign, PBSP also partnered earlier this year with the Department of Education for the construction of up to 10,000 classrooms to help reduce the shortage of more than 60,000 rooms.