ARMM education execs trained to have basic knowledge on building construction

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=931081
• Thursday, October 13, 2016

(PNA), LAP/NYP/EOF

COTABATO CITY, Oct. 13 (PNA) -- The education department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is now tasking school heads to learn the basics of construction to ensure good quality classroom are built in their schools.

DepEd-ARMM is now training school heads about construction so they can have a say in coming up with quality infrastructures for children.

Dr. John Magno, DepEd-ARMM secretary, said the school heads need to learn the basic concepts of construction as well as to get acquainted with building design and specifications of good quality construction materials.

“We want our school heads to learn all these skills so they could help us monitor the construction of classrooms in their respective schools,” Dr. Magno said.

He shared that the regional government filed cases last year against contractors who performed poorly.

"This is one of our strategies to prevent contractors from short-changing the schoolchildren, the end-users of our classrooms,” he added.

Magno said his office has already trained 1,125 school heads as well as other stakeholders such as parents of schoolchildren and DepEd-ARMM division supervisors on the basics of construction with the help of the Basic Education Assistance for Muslim Mindanao (BEAM-ARMM), a program funded by the Australian Government.

BEAM–ARMM was launched in 2012 aimed at contributing to the alleviation of poverty and the emergence of peace in ARMM through targeted investments in basic education.

Elma Maliga, school principal of Sapakan National High School in Rajah Buayan in Maguindanao, acknowledged that she has no engineering background, thus she was not particular on the quality of buildings, amount of cement used, quality of materials, among others.

After undergoing the basic training on quality construction, she is now closely monitoring the progress of works on a daily basis.

"I am now checking every construction material delivered by the contractors to our school. I want to see how the contractors install the columns of the classroom building – from assembling the iron bars to the pouring of concrete,” she said.

Maliga added that columns, the ceiling, and the floor must be constructed properly for the safety of the schoolchildren.

Magno said DepEd-ARMM will ensure that contractors will fulfill their obligation of building quality classrooms using good quality materials.

“Gone are the days of poorly constructed classrooms in ARMM,” he said, adding that classroom construction management training for school heads is a landmark initiative introduced by the BEAM-ARMM Program and implemented by DepEd-ARMM starting in 2014.

The DepEd-ARMM chief said the training is unique to the region.

“I haven’t heard of programs such as this in other regions,” he stressed. He said the department has also maximized the use of social media as a platform to monitor the progress of classroom construction in the region.