Makati City Mayor Abby Binay stressed the importance of co-evolving and cooperation among local government units (LGUs) in responding to the educational dilemmas of different schools and communities in various parts of the country.

Mayor Abby Binay

“Cities and municipalities around the country should strive to co-evolve in delivering quality education at the local level. It is the best way to surmount the challenges we currently face. It is also perhaps the only way the envisioned inclusivity in education can be fully achieved,” Binay said in a statement.

She explained that given the current dismal standing of the country’s education in global assessments, there must be stronger collaboration among local government units for the optimum use of available resources.     

Makati City had previously donated over 2,600 tablet armchairs to 13 public schools in Manila as part of its commitment to promoting quality education for all. The chairs were transferred free of cost to the selected schools, which consisted of five elementary schools and eight secondary schools in various districts of Manila.

According to the Schools Division Office of Manila (SDO Manila), the public elementary schools chosen as recipients of the donated chairs included Sen. Benigno Aquino Elementary School (500); Timoteo Paez Elementary School (148); Felipe G. Calderon Elementary School (150); Pio del Pilar Elementary School (64); and Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School (300).

Secondary schools that received the donation included the Pres. Corazon Aquino High School (100); Manuel Roxas High School (200); Pres. Sergio Osmeña High School (150); Gregorio Perfecto High School (285); Antonio J. Villegas Vocational High School (150); Raja Soliman Science and Technology High School (200); Raja Soliman Science and Technology High School (200); and Jose Abad Santos High School (221). 

Despite being placed under Taguig City's jurisdiction by the Supreme Court (SC), 45,000 students in the 14 schools located in the EMBO barangays still received school supplies from the Makati City government.

Under Makati's expanded Project FREE (Free Relevant and Excellent Education), public school students from kinder to senior high school, including Special Education students in elementary and high school, receive school uniforms and supplies from the city. Students in all levels will each receive school uniforms and PE T-shirt and jogging pants. School bags, caps and dengue kits will also be given to Kinder pupils.

Elementary students will also each receive a pair of black leather shoes, three pairs of white socks, Randoseru bags (Grades 1 and 4), dengue kits, and school supplies consisting of 10 pieces of notebooks, five sets intermediate pads, and five pieces each of ballpen and pencil.

Junior and senior high school students will also receive black shoes and socks, and the same school supplies package given to elementary students, with a Math Graphing notebook added.

Grades 11 and 12 students will also get a jacket with hoodie.

For SPED students in elementary and high school, the city will provide school supplies package, school uniforms, leather shoes and three pairs of socks, and anti-dengue kits for elementary SPED.

In 2018, Makati also donated 2,500 food packs, 5,000 pairs of new school shoes, and over 10,000 sets of new school uniforms to thousands of displaced schoolchildren in Marawi during its five-month siege.