TESDA turns over 500 chairs to QC school

27 August 2013

A public elementary school in Quezon City became the latest beneficiary of armchairs that trainees of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) produced from confiscated lumber.

San Antonio Elementary School in San Francisco Del Monte received the 500 units of school chairs on August 27 to help assure children of a better learning environment.

"Some students squat on the floor or sit on slab of benches while in classroom.  How can they concentrate on their lessons and perform better in school?" Secretary Joel Villanueva, TESDA director general, said.

"This is our own small way of helping eradicate the shortage in classroom chairs, so that soon, there will be one for each student," Villanueva, who led the turnover of the furniture, together with other government executives, to school officials.

The TESDA chief was joined by Secretary Armin Luistro of the Department of Education (DepED), Secretary Ramon Paje of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Cristino Naguiat Jr., chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR). Actress and television host Anne Curtis Smith was also present during the event.

Wilma Manio, principal of San Antonio Elementary School, received the school chairs in behalf of the school.

The project is under the PNoy Bayanihan project, a collaboration of TESDA, DENR, DEpEd, PAGCOR, which aims to turn confiscated lumber into school armchairs and turn over them to needy public schools in selected areas of the country to help ease the shortage.

With funding from PAGCOR, TESDA has established production centers in CARAGA and National Capital Region to manufacture the chairs through the training-cum-production scheme.
 
"We are actually achieving two things under the training cum-production scheme.  While on training, we teach our trainees some carpentry skills and at the same time produce the armchairs," Villanueva said.

Since last year, thousands of school chairs have been distributed to public schools, including those in Mindanao, as identified by the DepEd.

At the TESDA production site at its complex in Taguig City as of July 31 this year, a total of 5,000 armchairs have been produced and are ready for distribution.  These came from a total of 353,368 board feet of confiscated lumber delivered to the site by the Bureau of Customs.

The turnover of the chairs also coincided with the DepED's launch of a new building in San Antonio Elementary School to accommodate more students.
 
San Antonio was identified last year by the city government as one of the flood-prone public schools in Quezon City.