SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday said he believes that the 165,000 classroom shortage in the country can be solved through a “multi-faceted approach,” with the collaboration of local government units and the national government.
In a statement, Gatchalian said the government should quickly find ways to solve the classroom shortage since relying on the allotted budget is not enough.
“Solving the country’s classroom shortage demands a multi-faceted approach. One effective strategy is implementing a counterpart program where local government units and the national government share the cost of constructing new classrooms,” Gatchalian said.
Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara earlier said that the backlog in classrooms still stands at around 165,000, a problem which he said is expected to again have an impact when school year 2025-2026 starts on June 16.
Angara said the classroom shortage will force some public schools to implement the shifting of classes to accommodate learners.
As this developed, the San Juan government announced that the city recorded the highest functional literacy rate among highly urbanized cities in 2024.
Mayor Francis Zamora said on his Facebook page that this was based on the findings of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Angara said that the current budget allotted for the construction of new classrooms is not enough, and merely working with it may take around 30 years to address the backlog.
Under the 2025 budget for the DepEd, Angara said some P28 billion was earmarked for the construction of basic education facilities, P7.8 billion of which is for putting up new kindergarten, elementary, and secondary school buildings.
He said P6.13 billion of the P28 billion will go to rehabilitation, renovation, repair, and improvement of school buildings under the “Repair All Policy.”
Angara said the areas that need additional classrooms are the Southern Tagalog Region, National Capital Region, and others since “all the cities actually all over the country have a high number of classroom shortage” as they are densely populated.
Aside from the LGU-national government partnership, Gatchalian said another way to address the classroom backlog is to strengthen public-private partnerships and the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe). – With Christian Oineza
