The administration of Mayor Abigail Binay is giving additional benefits to children enrolled from public day care to senior high in Makati City this school year.
The city government had initiated Project FREE (Free Relevant Excellent Education), which provides free school supplies and school uniforms to students, including the “Air Binay” sneakers, raincoats and rain boots, anti-dengue kits, hygiene kits, and the latest freebies, school socks.
This year, three pairs of brand new white socks will be added to the free school gear and supplies distributed to over 84,000 enrolees.
Binay said she thought it prudent to add the socks to go with the new pair of school shoes, which will help students look smart in their uniform.
“New socks go perfectly well with new school shoes. We want our students to be dressed smartly from head to toe, without added cost to their parents,” the city chief executive said.
“If our students feel good in what they wear to school, they will also feel confident and motivated to be active learners in class,” she added.
Binay also noted that the distribution of free school wear and supplies has been done faster as thousands of students who participated in “Brigada Eskwela” last month already received theirs even before classes opened last June 3.
The city’s education department reported that some 75,206 students from preschool to senior high school have received their allocated uniforms, leather shoes and rubber shoes, and school supplies to date. These include 43,766 enrolees in elementary; 26,576 in junior high school; 3,023, senior high school; 1,156 in Alternative Learning System (ALS); and 685 in Special Education Program (SpEd).
Makati schools division superintendent Rita Riddle said the number of enrollees is expected to rise as schools are still open for enrollment.
Over 5,500 enrolees in Grades 11 and 12 at the Higher School of University of Makati are also set to receive theirs at the end of the month, before classes beginning July 1.
The Makati Social Welfare Department has also reported a total of 3,257 enrolees in the Day Care program. Each learner received two sets of t-shirt and jogging pants, a pair of sneakers and leather shoes, three pairs of socks, hygiene kit and school bag.
Each enrolee received two sets of school uniforms, a set of physical education uniform, three pairs of white socks, a pair of black shoes, a pair of the famous Air Binay sneakers (AB 2.0), and a Student’s Diary and Handbook.
Students under SPED, preschool, and Grade 1 each received a school bag. Together with Grade 2 students, they also received five fat pencils, five writing pads, and five writing notebooks each. Preschoolers also each received a raincoat and a pair of rain boots.
On the other hand, Grades 3 to 12 students each received five regular pencils, five ball pens, five intermediate pads, and 10 composition notebooks.
In addition, Grades 7 to 12 students each received a Mathematics notebook. On the other hand, SPED learners, preschoolers and all elementary students will each a receive dental and hygiene kit from the city.
In 2018, the city started to include ALS learners in its social development facilities as beneficiaries of Project FREE. A total of 43 boys in the Makati Youth Home and 41 girls in the Makati Social Development Center received free school supplies, uniforms and shoes from the city.