DepEd completes partnerships with provinces to ease classroom shortage

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) said it has completed partnerships with all the provinces in the country as part of efforts to address the nationwide classroom shortage. During a Senate basic education committee hearing chaired by Sen. Bam Aquino, DepEd Undersecretary for Legal and Legislative Affairs Filemon Ray Javier said the agency has also reached 87 percent completion of partnerships with cities and 75 percent with identified municipalities under its school infrastructure program. DepEd said it has mobilized P49.8 billion out of the P67.9-billion allocation for its 2026 school infrastructure program, which is expected to deliver an initial 14,601 new classrooms through implementation channels. Article continues after this advertisement According to DepEd, P22.35 billion was allocated for projects with local government units (LGUs) to build 6,353 classrooms, while P20.85 billion was coursed through the Department of Public Works and Highways for 6,134 classrooms. READ: DepEd taps LGUs to bridge 165,000 classroom gap; eyes faster builds Another P3.5 billion was allocated for 1,622 DepEd Learning Continuity Spaces, while P3 billion was set aside for projects involving civil society and nongovernment organizations and Last Mile Schools, covering 515 classrooms. DepEd said 209 LGUs are currently in various stages of procurement, with notices to proceed already issued in Biliran and Mountain Province and resolutions to award issued in Nueva Ecija and Ilocos Sur. “Classroom construction projects are moving forward, and the department intentionally undertook thorough preparations at the outset to ensure the proper use of public funds for the benefit of learners,” Javier said in Filipino. Article continues after this advertisement Meanwhile, Biliran Governor Dr. Rogelio Espina, who was also present at the hearing, said 66 new classrooms in Biliran have been under construction since July 6 after they began communicating with DepEd last January. During the hearing, Aquino also sought a master list of areas identified as beneficiaries of DepEd’s classroom construction program after some local government representatives said they had yet to receive information on projects intended for their localities. Article continues after this advertisement READ: DepEd eyes the construction of over 2,000 classrooms with LGUs’ help Aquino asked DepEd to make the list public and submit it to the committee to improve transparency and fast-track communication with LGUs. Javier said 258 memoranda of agreement (MOAs) have so far been signed with various LGUs. Following the MOA signing, procurement, contract signing, and fund release will follow. During the hearing, it was also clarified that the Department of Budget and Management does not consider the signing of a MOA alone as fund implementation. Projects must reach the contract-signing and fund-release stages to be considered as such. Aquino urged agencies to speed up classroom construction, warning that failure to demonstrate the effective use of allocated funds could affect funding for the program in the 2027 national budget. He earlier noted that the country faces a shortage of more than 166,000 classrooms. He said that the success of the government’s classroom construction program should be measured not by the amount of funding allocated but by the number of classrooms actually completed and made available to students. Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful. “Our fight is not just to build buildings. We fight to give every Filipino child a decent space to learn, dream, and have a chance at a better future,” Aquino said in Filipino in the hearing. /mcm