STUDENTS of the Pasay City East High School (PCEHS) will soon experience improved learning conditions and facilities. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and Travellers International (operator of Resorts World Manila) partnered to build a brand new four-storey building for them.

The new school building - which will have 24 classrooms and eight comfort rooms - will cost about P50 million to construct. An estimated 1,200 high school students of PCEHS will benefit from the new classrooms once they are completed in time for school year 2014-2015.

These new classrooms are on top of the thousands of school buildings under the P3-billion “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid-Aralan” project of PAGCOR. As of August 2013, the agency’s school building project has already completed the construction of 455 classrooms in 125 sites. Also underway are 486 brand new classrooms in 113 public schools nationwide.

According to PCEHS Principal Lourdes Garrido, their school has 4,160 students. It is the second most populated high school in Pasay City. Despite having thousands of enrollees, the school has only 38 functional classrooms.

Garrido cited that they have to hold morning and afternoon shifts to accommodate all their students. “We even have to utilize our school’s stage and our library for some of our classes because the existing 38 classrooms are not sufficient to serve the needs of our students,” she added.

Fourth year student Catherine Nicole Chinel is just one of thousands of students of PCEHS who painstakingly endure attending classes at the school’s stage. “Mahirap po talaga mag-aral lalo pag nasa stage. Hindi po kami makapag-concentrate sa aming lessons kasi hindi naman sya enclosed. Dahil daanan po ng tao yung stage, maingay po hindi namin masyado madinig ang lessons,” Chinel shared.

According to Chinel, the new classrooms will give students like her more convenience. “Very helpful po ito sa amin dahil hindi na namin kailangan na magklase sa library, lalo na sa stage. Masaya din po ako dahil alam ko na kasama sa makikinabang sa mga bagong classrooms ang aking mga kapatid.” Chinel has four younger siblings who are also studying in her alma mater.

PCEHS school principal Garrido said the new building will be a great help not only to their school but to the community as well. “With the additional classrooms, we can even accommodate more students in the nearby barangays. Thank you so much to PAGCOR, to Travellers and DepEd for choosing us to be the recipient of these additional classrooms,” she added.

During the groundbreaking ceremony of the new four-storey building last September 12, 2013, Assistant Manager Maria Eliza Cruz of PAGCOR’s Community Relations and Services Department noted that the agency’s licensees are encouraged to do their share in PAGCOR’s “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid-Aralan” project.

“We are happy that Travellers International is very much willing to help PAGCOR in its mission to promote quality education in the country through our school building project. Their contribution will go a long way in upgrading the learning facilities of public schools in casino host cities like Pasay,” Cruz noted.

On the other hand, Resorts World Manila (RWM) President Kingson Sian stated that taking part in PAGCOR’s school building project is their way of giving back to the community. He added that PAGCOR’s school building project is a good model to show how the private and public sectors work together.

According to Sian, “PAGCOR approached us and we put this all together. Without PAGCOR, this would not have happened. We would like to thank PAGCOR for giving us the opportunity to be part of this very noble program. We in Resorts World obviously would like to give back to the community and one way is through education.”

Apart from the construction of the 24-classroom, four storey building at the PCEHS, Travellers International and PAGCOR are also funding the construction of another school building in Paranaque City’s Tambo Elementary School. “Pasay and Paranaque are both our host cities. RWM is hosted by Pasay City and our future RW Bayshore will be hosted by Parañaque so we want to start our assistance for PAGCOR’s school building program in our two host cities,” Sian explained.

Go back