PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur - Close to P32 million was granted recently by the Department of Education (DepEd) to aid academically low-performing elementary and secondary schools in Western Mindanao in line with the agency's Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA), it was learned here.
DepEd Order No. 75 received by the Region 9 office here of the DepEd said the grant was jointly funded by the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and by the Australian Assistance for International Development (AusAID) through its Support to Philippine Basic Education Reform (SPHERE) administered by the World Bank (WB).
Dr. Walter O. Albos, DepEd 9 director, said the allocation from the GAA for the Muslim-Christian region totaled P23,021,000 while that of the AusAID amounted to P8,900,000 or a total of P31,921,000.
Albos said the DepEd directive earmarked 70 percent of the grant for academically low-performing schools, while 30 percent was intended to improve three crucial performance indicators of schools, namely, participation rate, cohort-survival rate, and achievement rate.
According to Albos, the schools division of Zamboanga del Sur was allocated the biggest fund assistance with P6,311,000 from GAA, and P2,500,000 from AusAID, followed by Zamboanga del Norte with P5,845,000 (GAA) and P2,400,000 (AusAID).
