SCHOOL children in Palawan province will benefit from the project organized by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Officers’ Club and Employees Association and the Kabayanihan Foundation.

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday signed a memorandum of agreement with the central bank and the Kabayanihan Foundation to help build more classrooms for public schools.

In the agreement, public schools and its students are encouraged to raise funds by re-circulating 25 centavo coins for the construction of classrooms.

This year’s partnership is aimed at building a one-storey two classroom school building in Virgilio Magbanua Elementary School in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan worth P600,000.

Gregorio Suarez, president of the BSP Officers’ Club Inc., said that a 25-centavo coin would mean so much to help alleviate the problem of classroom shortages.

For his part, Education Secretary Armin Luistro hailed the central bank and the foundation for their small acts of heroism, citing their effort in giving the importance of coins recirculation and by helping the government to build more classrooms for public schools.

“We [DepEd] are very thankful to our partners for having this very innovative way of fund raising. Rest assured that the education department will also teach students about the necessity of coin recirculation,” Luistro said.

In November 2011, the central bank and the foundation raised donations through the Guinness World Record in an attempt to hold the longest line of coins for the construction of classrooms for less privileged school children.

Held at the Quirino grounds, the line of 25 coins measured to 73.02-kilometer setting a new world record for the longest line of single-denominated coins.