Iloilo City rolls out school aid, fixes 51 campuses

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The Iloilo City government is ramping up education support ahead of the opening of classes, providing free school supplies and rolling out infrastructure projects in 51 of its 66 public schools to ease classroom congestion and improve learning conditions.

Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu said the twin initiatives are part of the city’s continuing efforts to strengthen basic education services and address the needs of students and parents amid rising economic pressures.

The programs are bankrolled by the Special Education Fund, or SEF, which draws from 33 percent of Real Property Tax collections, along with allocations from the city’s supplemental budget.

“For every PHP 100 paid in [RPT], PHP 33 goes directly to the SEF, which we use for classrooms, repairs, facilities, and student support,” Treñas-Chu said.

“These initiatives show that the taxes you pay directly go back to the people, for a better learning environment and higher quality education for our children,” she added.

The city government will distribute free school supplies to learners from kindergarten to senior high school for School Year 2026–2027.

The program will be funded through the SEF and part of the city’s PHP 1.4 billion supplemental budget.

The mayor said the initiative aims to help families cope with education-related expenses, particularly households with multiple children in school.

“Even a small assistance already helps. If you have three or five children, it is already a big relief because at least your concern will only be what they need for school,” Treñas-Chu said.

“Making education more accessible to Ilonggos remains one of the priority programs of the city government,” she added.

Treñas-Chu said around PHP 8.5 million has been allocated for the initial procurement of school supplies following approval by the Local School Board.

Beyond student assistance, the city government will carry out infrastructure and improvement projects in the 51 identified public schools.

“Last year, I personally called the school principals and committed that no school in Iloilo City will be neglected. That is why they themselves identified their priority projects based on what their schools truly need,” the mayor said.

Treñas-Chu said the projects are intended to address long-standing classroom shortages and reduce overcrowding in schools running high student-to-classroom ratios and shifting schedules.

“In some schools, the ratio is 1:40 or more, and in others, almost 1:50. The problem is that some schools are already operating on shifting schedules. That is why we really need to address the classroom backlog,” she said.

The city government aims to improve learning conditions by reducing student-to-classroom ratios to more manageable levels.

“Our goal is to reduce the ratio to create a more conducive learning environment for our students here in the city. Ideally, a safe standard is 1:30, and in some schools, we are aiming for 1:25,” Treñas-Chu added.

The push comes as the Department of Education continues to grapple with a nationwide classroom shortage, which Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier estimated at more than 165,000 rooms, with shifting schedules used as a stopgap in densely populated urban divisions.

Real property tax collections became a more critical funding stream for local school boards under Republic Act No. 12001, or the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, which took effect in 2024 and mandated the adoption of updated, market-based property valuations to expand local revenue.