While speaking before the Conference for Youth Division Coordinators and Volunteers for the Implementation of the Last Mile Schools Program (Visayas Cluster), which came to a close yesterday at Brooke’s Place in Dumaguete City, Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones called on the education sector to support “last mile schools.”
The term “last mile school” refers to facilities with less than four classrooms, without electricity, no funding for repairs, with a student population typically forced to travel for over an hour to attend school.
“Whatever is happening to our country, think and reflect [on] what you can do better,” she stressed.
According to DepEd, the program seeks to “address the gaps in resources and facilities of schools that are located in geographically isolated and disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas.”
“It’s a two-year program,” DepEd Undersecretary for Administration Alain del Pascua explained in an earlier release. “We will be concentrating on 2020 and 2021 and the two-year program will focus first on facilities, then on infrastructure.”/WDJ