The country still needs 159,000 classrooms for K–12 students in public schools for the school year 2023–2024, Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said on Wednesday.
"Mr. Chair, with regards to that, we have established already under our schools' infrastructure and facilities trend, that the total gap, covering all the damages brought about by the typhoons and lack of classrooms – 159,000 classrooms [are needed] all over the country. That is the total gap that we have in terms of facilities, classrooms particularly," Bringas said during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education chaired by Senator Win Gatchalian.
He said that 440 classrooms were destroyed due to Typhoon Egay and need to be immediately replaced.
The consideration of the classroom shortage count includes congestion with the right number of students in the ideal ratio for those entering kindergarten, junior high school, and senior high school.
Bringas also reported that they have yet to include the schools that are still swamped with floods and those that sustained minor and major damages due to the successive bad weather in the total number of classroom shortages.
Gatchalian said that the DepEd needs an estimated P300 million budget for the construction of classrooms. However, the DepEd official said their budget for 2023-2024 is only P10 million.
The current school year's classroom deficit is far more severe than the shortage of 91,000 classrooms last year.
