Free uniform and school supplies for Taguig Public School students

Parents of students returning this June in Taguig’s public schools are lucky—they won’t have to worry about the skyrocketing prices of school supplies and uniforms for their children.

This developed as Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano gave assurance all students in the city’s public schools will receive anew this year free ready-to-wear uniforms, shoes, and bags.

Students will also receive a complete set of notebooks for all their subjects, pencils and ballpens. Grade schoolers will get additional items such as sharpeners, crayons, a pair of scissor, and pad papers, as well as health kits (for pre-schoolers up to Grade 3) containing powder, toothpaste, face towel and bath soap.

As for the uniforms, girls will receive three blouses and two skirts, while boys will get three polos and two pairs of shorts or pants. High school students will receive a PE shirt too.

Education in public high school and elementary schools is free but many parents hesitate sending their children to school because they don’t have the money for additional expenses on items such as uniforms and school supplies.

“We are doing this because we know that this would help ease the financial burden of the parents. They could use their money for other things instead,” Mayor Lani said.

“Despite rising costs, the local government of Taguig is still in a position to give free school supplies and uniforms to our students. Ito po ay galing sa mga buwis na ibinibigay ninyo; kami po ay nagbabalik lamang ng tulong,” she added.

Mayor Lani said that one of the city government’s important advocacies is to raise the quality of education for all Taguigenos.

“I, together with the City Council, firmly believe that this program would provide poor students the opportunity to study. We are investing in education in our belief that this would improve the lives of our residents,” said Mayor Lani.

“As I often say, when we invest in education, wala tayong lugi,” she pointed out.

The number of students in public schools is expected to increase this school year after the Department of Education approved tuition fee increases in 245 private schools in Metro Manila and a total of 886 out of 12,670 private educational institutions nationwide.

Mayor Lani has been giving top priority to the local education sector. Among others, she increased the budget for Scholarship program from P100 million in 2011 to P200 million this year.

In contrast, the previous administration allocated only P5 million for scholarship.

To address the congestion in public schools, Mayor Lani launched the Taguig Learner’s Certificate Program, which transferred over a thousand public school students to private schools and their tuition fees shouldered by the local government.

This year, Mayor Lani also pioneered the e-Graduation program, where live videos of all the graduation rites in the city’s public schools are streamed on the Internet via Taguig’s official website (www.taguig.gov.ph) to allow relatives of the graduates—even those abroad—to witness the ceremonies.