EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara yesterday said the department will forge stronger ties with the Department of Public Works and Highways and local government units to fast-track the construction of more access roads to schools, especially in far-flung areas of the country.
Angara said his office had already presented a formal proposal to the DPWH recommending the inclusion of access roads to public schools in the department’s programming and investment plans, especially for newly constructed schools with no road access.
Angara underscored the importance of the initiative, drawing from his recent visits to several “Last Mile” schools in Mindanao.
Last Mile schools are defined by DepEd as those without complete sets of school furniture, no computers, no Internet connection, very few textbooks and manuals, and lacking laboratory tools and are usually located in geographically isolated, disadvantaged, and conflict-affected areas.
These schools typically have a student population of less than 100 learners.
As of last year, the DepEd has identified over 7,000 schools fitting the definition of a Last Mile school across the country.
“Noong pumunta kami sa Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, nakita natin ang realidad. May mga estudyanteng kailangang tumawid ng ilog at umakyat ng bundok para lang makapasok sa paaralan. Hindi puwedeng puro classrooms lang ang itatayo natin kung wala namang daan papunta roon (When we visited Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, we saw the reality on the ground. There are students who have to cross rivers and climb mountains just to get to their schools. What is the use of constructing more classrooms if we do not have roads going to these schools),” he said.
“Kung may farm-to-market road, dapat may road-to-school din (If there are farm-to-market roads, there should also be road-to-schools),” he added.
Angara said the DepEd, in its proposal, also pointed to DPWH’s successful infrastructure collaborations with other agencies, such as the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program with the Department of Tourism, the Farm-to-Market Road Development Program with the Department of Agriculture, and the Roads Leveraging Linkages of Industry and Trade with the Department of Trade and Industry to make known its case that public schools are also in need of DPWH support not only in the construction of school buildings but also access roads to isolated areas where these schools are located.
To support this push, DepEd is proposing a special provision under its 2026 Basic Education Facilities Fund that all newly constructed school buildings have corresponding access roads with the DPWH and LGUs to immediately include the construction of roads in cases where none are available.
