DepEd pushes for reevaluation of school building construction design for disaster risk reduction

By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

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DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, during a virtual visit in DepEd Region 1, underscored the importance of looking at details in the building designs before the actual construction.

“Perhaps the building designs need to be improved, so that during calamities such as earthquakes and typhoons, the school buildings are much more secure, rather than these past calamities where many of our classrooms were immediately toppled and destroyed,” Briones said.

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While there are new school buildings every year, Briones said that it is not enough to measure efforts on addressing classroom shortages in the country. Proper reevaluation of building design, she added, is “needed to lessen the yearly destruction of school buildings due to calamities.” Moreover, Briones said that the reevaluation of school building designs should also consider the need to comply with the new normal guidelines set by the Department of Health (DOH) – especially as the agency pushes for the pilot implementation of limited face-to-face conduct of classes in areas with low or no cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

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