School Encourages to Think "Inside" the Box

Philippine school made from APL cargo containers inaugurated

Somewhere, Malcom McLean, "the father of containerization," is smiling.
Yesterday the NOL Group, the Singapore-based container shipping and logistics company, celebrated with the Philippine Christian Foundation (PCF) the inauguration of the container school called “Philippine Technical College.” The campus is unique in that it is built exclusively from APL cargo containers.
NOL Group donated 53 containers to PCF and subsidized the purchase of 26 more. The Group also sponsored a classroom for students and shipped three 40-foot-containers of building materials to Manila to assist in the school’s construction.
“We’re privileged to support this landmark project in a unique way,” said Edgar Milla, APL’s Managing Director for the Philippines.
The containers were sheathed in concrete for added strength and used as primary construction material for the school. The design of the facility meets the standards of the Philippine Department of Education.
The school was officially inaugurated at a ceremony yesterday. The four-storey facility is near an area known as Smokey Mountain, once the site of a garbage dump. It now houses 1,000 students from one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Manila. It is believed to be the largest school in the world built from cargo containers.
The school is run by PCF and offers classes from pre-school through high school as well as offering vocational courses for livelihood skills training. The Foundation’s primary objective is to use education to bring an end to child labour at Smokey Mountain dump site.