- DepEd, DOTr & UK FCDO sign MoU to build Education City with transit hub in Taguig’s 13-hectare DepEd Complex
- Project SEED to connect NSCR & Metro Manila Subway, promoting safe, green, and student-centered infrastructure
- UK-backed TOD initiative to blend smart transport with education spaces, modeled on London’s Elizabeth Line
As a response to the call of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to enhance access to quality transport and education facilities, the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Transportation (DOTr), and the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (UK FCDO) entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for an envisioned education hub.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon, and British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils signed the accord for the construction of a transit hub in the 13-hectare DepEd Complex in Taguig City.
Angara stressed the value of constructing educational buildings within a community with green and sustainable transport in enhancing the education and lives of students. "This partnership will directly benefit our students and teachers from a well-designed, green, and safe space that is for the purpose of public education", Angara stated.
The pact seeks to ensure safer, accessible, and sustainable transport for learners under the Senate-DepEd (SEED) Project Development Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). Similarly, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon added the project will also benefit future projects, which can be replicated from Project SEED.
"It is significant to the whole country because this project will open the door to good projects in the future not just transport projects but also education projects", Dizon said.
The transport chief emphasized the significance of inter-agency cooperation and coordination with other countries as "our partners will be vital to the success of very important projects.
Pursuant to DepEd, the project is based on the 13-hectare DepEd Complex in Taguig City that the DepEd aims to redevelop into Education City—a future-proof, climate-resilient, and sustainably mixed-use area with green commercial and residential structures, open parks, transit nodes, training and MICE facilities, and teacher quarters.
Education City will be built in the middle of the future Senate-DepEd Station, a major transport hub that will connect two of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, the North South Commuter Railway (NSCR) and the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP).
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The SEED Project seeks to develop integrated, planned, and accessible communities across major railways. This will make living, studying, working, and traveling in Metro Manila more convenient for students and residents.
Other than enhancing connectivity, the project will also create revenue opportunities for the DepEd that will assist in the construction of more classrooms and promote digital learning in schools.
The UK is pleased to introduce British talent and ingenuity to lead the development of a TOD in which residents can live, learn, work, and prosper linked by efficient transport systems, people-centered in design, and informed by principles of sustainability and resilience", British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said.
The MOU provides for the establishment of a working group to concentrate and steer the project implementation. It also paves the way for Phase 2 of the plan which will cover technical studies and the formulation of a project concept to be endorsed to the NEDA Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) for approval.
The project is supported under the UK FCDO's Green Cities and Infrastructure Programme. It is based on the London's Elizabeth Line project, which has been hailed as a model of smart city transit-linked development for the world.
In constructing the world-class transit terminal, DepEd and DOTr shall have cooperation with Crossrail International experts and top British architectural and engineering companies.
