By MERLINDA A. PEDROSA

The Bacolod City government will distribute free school supplies to all public elementary students as well as school bags and physical education (PE) uniforms for Grade 7 to Grade 12 students in the locality during the opening of classes next week.

Mayor Greg Gasataya said they are now finalizing with the Department of Education (DepEd) the schedule of the distribution of the school materials to all the public schools.

He said they are eyeing finishing the distribution within the week, like what they did last year.

“For our parents, there’s no need to buy school supplies because the city is now ready to distribute it,” he added.

The mayor noted that the city government will provide free school supplies and bags to at least 64,625 students from Kinder to Grade 6, and free school bags and PE uniforms to at least 46,694 students.

The supplies include notebooks, writing pads, ballpens, pencils, sharpeners, custom backpacks, sling bags, and one set of PE uniforms.

Gasataya said the budget for the free school supplies and uniforms was taken from the Special Education Fund, with an allocation of at least P90 million for the implementation of the program.

The mayor clarified that the backpacks and slingbags only have the city government’s logo and do not contain the names of any public officials.

In 2016, the city council approved the ordinance providing free educational materials to all students of public elementary schools in the city./MAP, WDJ