Angara: 'Dramatic' actions needed to address 159K classroom backlog

New Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara on Monday said “dramatic” actions should be done in order to address classroom backlog across the country.

“It’s about 159,000 classrooms. Ang problema diyan, nagdadagdag tayo every year. Because of the population increase, nagdadagdag ‘yan by 12,000 a year… Eh ang na-construct natin nasa 2,000 lang a year, so kita mo, ‘yung deficit dumadagdag ng 10,000 every year,” Angara said in an ambush interview. 

(The problem there is that the backlog grows every year by 12,000 because of the population increase. We only construct around 2,000 classrooms every year, so the deficit increases by 10,000 yearly.) 

“So we need to do something dramatic here and tingin ko, pag-aaralan natin ‘yung sinasabing nilang standard sa construction [I think we will study the said standard in construction of classrooms],” he added. 

Last year, DepEd Assistant Secretary Cesar Bringas said that the agency would need around P397 billion to address the 159,000 classroom backlog as each classroom cost around P2 million.

As a temporary solution, Bringas said that some schools, particularly in highly congested areas, had to implement three shifts to cater to all the students.

These schools, Bringas said, are mostly in the highly urbanized areas like Metro Manila, Cebu City, and some schools in Calabarzon. —KBK, GMA Integrated News