Rebuilding schools after Yolanda

CEBU, Philippines - The classroom is where students' minds are honed and skills are trained. Its structure is purposely designed to protect learners against the heat and rain, to contain voices within its walls, and keep out interruptions.

Having a sturdy edifice makes the classroom conducive for learning. However, the standard design for public schools had to undergo changes after a strong typhoon swept across the Visayas region exactly three years ago. Leaving classrooms in some towns of northern Cebu damaged or destroyed.

Right after super typhoon Yolanda hit on November 8, 2013, structural experts came up with an improved design. With this design rehabilitated or newly-constructed classrooms are expected to withstand weather disturbances even as strong as a super typhoon.

“This (classroom) has been designed for 250 kilometer per hour wind strength,” said Engineer Ester Roldan, project development officer under the Physical Facilities Section of the Department of Education Cebu Province Division.

A super typhoon has a maximum wind speed exceeding 220 kilometers per hour, according to the state weather bureau.

Roldan said that the revised design was formulated at DepEd head office in Metro Manila after they commissioned structural engineers and consulted Department of Public Works and Highways personnel.

New  Structural Scheme

Instead of overlaying one over the other, Roldan said metal roofing sheets should take the entire length in covering each side of the roof.

Even the slightest detail of a structure, such as nails, was carefully assessed to prevent roofing sheets from easily blown off by storm winds. The common umbrella nails used before to secure the roofing has been replaced with J-Bolts, which is a more durable fastener.

The roof trusses or the bars that support the roofing from the ceiling, and the ceiling joist were recommended to be made of steel rather than using lumber.

In place of plywood, fiber-made board is used to cover the ceiling.

Larger steel rods and added steel bars were applied for the reinforcement of the walls and posts in creating concrete columns and structural beams.

The frame of jalousie blades were also changed from aluminum to plastic since plastic is more durable but also flexible.

The changes were applied during the rehabilitation works of the affected public schools in 13 municipalities and one component city in northern Cebu from Catmon town to the tip of Cebu Island in Daanbantayan, including Bantayan Island and Camotes Island.

However, classrooms identified to be repaired or reconstructed were only selected as per request from school heads. Repairs were undertaken by DepEd while reconstruction was handled by DPWH.

First and second batch completed

Roldan said the first and second batch of repairs were already completed except for one school in Barangay Malbago, Madridejos town where the project was realigned as the rehabilitation was adopted by a foreign faith-based organization.

The project implementation of the first batch with a total cost of over P380 million started in the last quarter of 2014. When the first batch finished in the first quarter of 2015, the second batch was then worked out and eventually was completed on the first quarter of 2016 with a total cost of over P442 million.

Roldan said the budget was sourced from DepEd’s General Appropriations Act and Quick Response Fund while there was also a sum of financial support coming from other government entities and non-government organizations.

Challenges  during project implementation

Roldan admitted school authorities were initially confused where to get funding for the rehabilitation of classrooms since government funding took a while before it was operational.

While government funding was still under process, donors came first and committed to help rehabilitate the classrooms, among them were non-government organizations like the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., religious groups, and the private sector.

Roldan said there was also a problem on the overlapping of rehabilitation projects in some schools as various donors flocked to northern Cebu. Some school heads accepted other entities’ offer to rehabilitate their schools even if they also requested the same from DepEd.

School administrators also failed to inform the division office they entered into such an agreement with other entities, so when government funds arrived the school’s classrooms were already repaired.

Roldan said other school heads skimped and rushed repairs just to have available classrooms to hold classes and prevent students from being exposed to heat and rain.

She said the division office decided to apply “variation” by looking for other areas or structures in the school that still needs repairs to make use of the funds. Some rehabilitation in schools was also later implemented since other local contractors accepted several projects and will have to finish with the earlier ones, she added

DepEd Cebu Province Division inspected the rehabilitation works to determine if contractors followed the recommended structural design.

Roldan said there were unfunded projects whose budgets came late. These remaining classroom repairs were gathered for the third and last batch that is being implemented by the regional office of DepEd in Central Visayas.

Last  batch  still underway

Engineer Noime Guillen, the regional engineer of DepEd-7’s Education Support Services Division, said there are classroom repairs left until now since other schools worked out using half their classrooms while having others repaired. Still, other schools intentionally left some classrooms unrepaired so they can use these classrooms to proceed with regular classes anyway.

For the third batch, Guillen said some of the classroom repairs started in December 2015 but most were initiated on January 2016 and a few followed in the next months.

She said at least 114 schools are listed under the third batch with an allocated amount of over P115 million sourced from DepEd’s Basic Education Facilities Fund.

Based on the declaration of contractors and the report from selected schools, she said around 80 percent of the classroom repairs have been completed while the rest are still ongoing.

However, Guillen said these accomplished projects will have to be validated first if contractors followed the technical specifications stipulated under the structural plan or the approved Program of Works. She said the regional office cannot just rely on the declaration from contractors and will have to consult other stakeholders, especially school administrators.

“It’s almost done. There are those that are already completed but we cannot say it’s a hundred percent. We have to conduct ocular inspection to validate the remaining corrective works,” said Guillen.

If the scope of work is not followed, she said the regional office will demand contractors rectify the repairs.

The regional office has been monitoring the implementation of the classroom repairs. Just last month, Guillen said regional supervisors were deployed to the clustered projects to check and validate their status.

She added school heads were also directed to oversee the project implementation since they are also informed of the structural plan of the classroom repairs.

Guillen said the regional office will hold another inspection this month. —/BRP (FREEMAN)