MANILA, Philippines – Resolving the country’s classroom shortage is projected to take more than 20 years, given the current average annual budget of P24 billion.
The Philippines lacks 165,443 classrooms, based on Department of Education (DepEd) data.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) said in its Year Two Report, released on Monday, January 27, that around 5.1 million out of the 24 million students in public schools are classified as aisle learners, or “those in excess of the ideal number of 25 to 45 learners in a classroom.”
Since the 1990s, public schools have been implementing two or more shifts per day because of the classroom shortage.
As a current example, EDCOM 2 mentioned Ciudad Nuevo de Naic National High School in Naic, Cavite, which has six shifts from morning to evening.
Slow classroom construction
While classroom construction is the government’s “default solution,” EDCOM 2 observed that “the process of building new classrooms has been slow, inefficient, and unsustainable.”
“The completion rate of classroom construction has been declining over the past five years. In 2022, no new classrooms were constructed from new appropriations. Only 847 classrooms or 12% of the required number were slated to be completed by December 2024,” the commission said.
Classroom construction involves both the DepEd and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which make use of the Basic Educational Facilities Fund (BEFF).
But EDCOM 2 noted that the BEFF “is underutilized due to bottlenecks in the project cycle,” such as planning and procurement delays, design modifications, cost mismatches, failed biddings, contract cancellations, lack of buildable space, site ownership disputes, right-of-way challenges, difficulties in accessing remote areas, shortages of materials, limited capacity to project student population growth, and logistical errors in project documentation.
“This fund, which peaked at P118 billion in 2017, had been drastically reduced to P28 billion by 2025 due to underutilization. In contrast, the total budget requirement to address classroom shortage by 2023 was P413.6 billion,” the commission said.
The DepEd and the DPWH are not even aligned on the cost per classroom, with the education department pegging it at P2.5 million and the public works department at P3.5 million.
EDCOM 2 made the following recommendations in its report:
- Integrating school congestion analysis into regular planning processes at the divisional, regional, and national levels
- Analyzing schools as interconnected networks rather than isolated units for proper allocation of resources
- Prioritizing schools with makeshift structures and high classroom shortages
- Implementing 50-50 construction cost sharing between the national government and local government units (LGUs)
- Establishing clear protocols for resolving site ownership and right-of-way issues
- Submission of contractors’ catch-up plans for current projects that are delayed
- Looking into maximizing buildable spaces by constructing mid-rise buildings
- Exploring technology for prefabricated school buildings
- Setting up a referral system at the LGU or schools division office level for the transfer of students from congested public schools to other public schools that can accommodate them
- Providing subsidies to allow public school students to transfer to private schools
You can access the full Year Two Report here. – Rappler.com
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