FILE PHOTO: Students use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun as they line up to wait for their classes outside their school in Manila on April 2, 2024. Currently, the country has a classroom backlog of 150,000, which is projected to grow to 200,000 by 2028 if the government continues at its current slow pace of construction. - AFP
MANILA: The Department of Education (DepEd) has pinned the blame on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the measly number of classrooms the government has constructed for the year.
The agency also reiterated its move to tap local government units, nongovernment organisations and the private sector to accelerate the construction of more classrooms by next year and address the worsening of the already dire backlog in the country reeling in a learning crisis.
“We want to change the current system in place. Because since 2018, only the DPWH has been given the mandate to construct DepEd classrooms,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara told reporters in Malacañang on Tuesday (Oct 21).
“What we want to do now is for capable local government units — provincial governments, cities, and even first class and second class municipalities — to also build their own classrooms [by downloading DepEd’s budget into them]. This may expedite the process,” he said.
In a statement, the DepEd said it was also pushing for “flexibility” under the 2026 budget so that classroom projects may be implemented not only by the DPWH, but also by the DepEd, local government units, partners such as the engineering brigades of the military and through public-private partnerships (PPP).
Angara cited how 14,000 classrooms had been built through PPP during the term of former Education Secretary Armin Luistro.
Of the P912-billion (US$15.6 billion) proposed budget of the DepEd for 2026 under the General Appropriations Bill approved by the House of Representatives, about seven per cent or P63 billion is allotted for the Basic Education Facilities Fund for the construction of classrooms in different parts of the country.
The DepEd’s remarks came after the DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon admitted during the agency’s budget deliberation in the Senate on Monday that it had so far completed building only 22 classrooms out of the 1,700 target for 2025.
With only two months left before the end of the year, Dizon called out the “very deplorable performance” of the DPWH, which still had 882 ongoing classroom projects, and 882 more that have not yet been started.
Currently, the country has a classroom backlog of 150,000, which is projected to grow to 200,000 by 2028 if the government continues at its current slow pace of construction.
“It is really disappointing because we know that the classrooms are badly needed by our countrymen. We need it for progress, our youth must be in the right environment,” Angara said. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
