Marcos vows 40K new classrooms before end of his term

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has committed to building 40,000 additional classrooms before the end of his term as part of a major infrastructure push to solve persistent shortages in public schools across the country.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, Marcos said the government has already built nearly 22,000 classrooms in the past three years and will ramp up construction in partnership with the private sector.

“Sa tatlong taon, halos dalawampu't dalawang libong silid-aralan ang nabuksan na. Hihigitan pa natin ito, dahil talagang nakakaawa na ang ating mga mag-aaral. Hindi na dapat nabibitin ang oras nila sa klase dahil sa kakulangan sa classroom,” the president said.

(In three years, almost twenty-two thousand classrooms have been opened. We will surpass this, because our students are truly pitiful. Their classes will no longer be cut short in time because of the lack of classrooms.)

The pledge aims to reduce the country’s longstanding classroom backlog, which has forced many schools to conduct double or even triple shifts, often in cramped or makeshift facilities.

To sustain the momentum, Marcos urged Congress to provide consistent and sufficient funding for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) school infrastructure program.

The 40,000 additional classrooms, he said, are critical in improving learning conditions, especially as the country continues to implement learning recovery measures in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“Katuwang ng pribadong sektor, sisikapin nating madagdagan pa ng apatnapung libong silid-aralan bago matapos ang ating Administrasyon.
Maglalaan tayo ng sapat na pondo para rito. Alang-alang sa ating mga mag-aaral, hihilingin ko ang buong suporta ng ating Kongreso," tshe President said.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier reported that DepEd is working with the private sector and local governments to accelerate school construction, with new modular classrooms also being deployed to disaster-hit areas.

Advocates have long cited inadequate school infrastructure as a major barrier to quality education, contributing to learning loss, student fatigue, and lower academic outcomes.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier said the administration is pushing to adopt a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to fast-track classroom construction — one of the few viable solutions that can scale up infrastructure without overburdening the yearly education budget. —VAL, GMA Integrated News