PALO, Leyte – Soon-to-rise school buildings are more climate change resilient, but not designed to provide shelter for families displaced by natural calamities, said Department of Education Secretary Armin Luistro. New school buildings, according to Luistro will be able to withstand strong quakes and up to 250 kilometers per hour wind. The construction cost for a single classroom rose to P1 million from P650,000. “Even a single storey school building is already designed to be climate change resilient,” he added. However, Luistro said that even if they are reducing the risk of classrooms to damages, it doesn’t mean that structures are designed as evacuation centers. “Our classrooms are not ideal evacuation centers. Our arrangement is that it becomes a makeshift evacuation place for up to four days. After that, some problems would arise like health, nutrition, and security because classrooms are not designed to house families,” the official said. The education department asks local government units to build separate evacuation centers to ensure that there will be no disruptions of classes after a natural calamity. The education cluster reported that over 2,500 schools with 17,000 classrooms reported damages while 2,500 day care centers have been damaged or destroyed during the onslaught of Yolanda. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)