DepEd calls for collaborative efforts in solving classroom backlog

The Department of Education (DepEd) said on Tuesday that addressing the country’s educational woes, including the shortage of 165,000 classrooms, requires a multi-sectoral approach.

“Education is not just the responsibility of schools or teachers alone,” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara told reporters in Filipino during an interview.

“Even the families, communities, and the barangays must be involved in raising and educating the youth,” he added.

On average, Mr. Angara said that the department builds around 6,000 new classrooms annually.

“We will begin building in areas that need it the most, which are usually cities in Region 4A,” Mr. Angara said in a separate interview during the launch of DepEd’s Quality Basic Education Development Plan (QBEDP).

“Those areas are overpopulated, which is why there’s a double to triple shift,” he added.

During President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), he said that the government plans to build 40,000 new classrooms by 2028 through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

To help build more classrooms across the country and teach core Filipino values to children through books, a partnership between the DepEd, Jollibee, and Adarna House was launched on Tuesday.

Under the partnership, P5 from every purchase of a “Kids Values Meal” will go to the Jollibee Group Foundation’s Classroom Building Project, which aims to donate Joy Learning Centers across various locations nationwide by 2028.

“I think it’s very important for companies such as Jollibee, to share the common vision of helping raise the next generation of Filipinos who are not just smart but also full of values,” Dorothy-Dee Ching, vice president for marketing at Jollibee, told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the event.

“I think it’s a great partnership that is public-private, so that we can help our nation move forward,” she added.

Doubling the effort

According to former DepEd Secretary Armin B. Luistro, the government must build at least 25,000 learning facilities annually to replace those that are damaged and unusable.

“Every year you needed to build like 25,000 classrooms to replace the 10 to 12-year-old classrooms,” he told BusinessWorld in an interview.

Mr. Luistro said that during his term as the department chief, they had to double their efforts in building classrooms to catch up with the backlog. “During the six-year term, we were building 84 classrooms a day.”

“It’s not all DepEd. The LGUs (local government unit) helped including the private sector, and even the budget of PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) was given to DepEd only to construct classrooms,” he added. – Almira Louise S. Martinez