Megaworld sets up education venture

The Mactan Newtown is Megaworld Corp.’s first foray in Central Visayas.

Tycoon Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. is debuting into the education space with the opening this coming schoolyear of a new De La Salle Brothers-supervised primary school at its 30-hectare The Mactan Newtown township in Cebu.

With the assistance of the De La Salle Brothers through the Lasallian Schools Supervision Services Association Inc. (LASSSAI), the new school – which will initially focus on basic education – is officially named “Newtown School of Excellence.”

Megaworld has spent P240 million in building the school since 2014. With this new undertaking, Andrew Tan is following the route taken by a number of other tycoons in the Philippines: invest in people, the country’s most valuable resources.

The new school is located in a nearly one-hectare campus near the entrance of Mactan Newtown township along Mactan Circumferential Road. The site is close to the heritage sites of the Mactan Shrine and Lapu-Lapu Shrine as well as popular hotels and resorts such as Movenpick and Shangri-La Mactan.

“This school inside The Mactan Newtown will primarily cater to the children of the township homeowners, particularly those who live in our condominium developments. We will also cater to the children of the expat community and residents of Lapu-Lapu City and nearby towns and cities as well as the children of those working in nearby businesses and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies,” Megaworld Cebu Properties Inc. president Noli Hernandez said in a press statement on Monday.

The Newtown School of Excellence will have two main buildings. The single-storey Kindergarten Building has three classrooms, a library, playground and a multipurpose hall. The five-storey Elementary Building has 21 classrooms, audio-visual rooms, computer rooms, music room, home economics room, prayer room, library and learning resource center, auditorium, covered court, physical education instructional room, science laboratories, clinic and its own canteen.

“Being inside The Mactan Newtown, the school will also have access to its own beachfront, allowing the institution to conveniently utilize the beach facilities for school activities. With the improvement of the quality of life of the future generation as its primary goal, this school will provide an exceptional educational program through the reputable brand of LASSSAI,” Hernandez added.

LASSAI was established in 1996 to systematize the management and supervision of schools under the auspices of De La Salle Brothers.

The curricula in different programs to be offered in the Newtown School of Excellence will be “technology-based and will be geared towards academic excellence and proficiency,” the company said.