All set for Adopt-a-School Gallery Walk

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — All is set for this city’s Adopt-a-School Gallery Walk come June 24 at Heroes Hall, as the Education Governance Council taps private benefactors to address the need to improve education, especially facilities.
Councilor Jimmy Lazatin, City Council’s committee on education, said this during the legislative body’s regular session recently.
The Gallery Walk would have various public schools at the mini-convention center of Heroes Hall, where donors would have a chance to interact with school officials on their needs, as in a flea market style.

“Every Filipino child deserves to finish school. The sad reality is that children are not given the quality education they need to become really productive. The delivery of quality education is hampered by government’s limited resources which cannot meet the demand of a growing student population,” Lazatin said.
He said the Adopt-a-School program, created under Republic Act 8225 and established years ago but never really took-off, will give the private sector the opportunity to participate in efforts to improve education through construction of classrooms, training of teachers, provision of textbooks and learning facilities, health and nutrition interventions and other projects a school needs.
“There is return goodwill for donors of up to 150 percent in tax exemptions. But the best here is the united effort to help solve the problem in education. Even the US Ambassador has been pushing for this through a very strong public-private partnership program or PPP,” he shared.
Lazatin, the city’s erstwhile “education czar” added, “We are all stakeholders in the nation’s development with education as our most vital social concern. Let us invest for the future of our children today.”

Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/local-news/2011/06/14/all-set-adopt-school-gallery-walk-161125