President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, vowed to build 40,000 more classrooms by the end of his term in 2028, a pledge that falls significantly short of addressing the country’s classroom backlog, which stands at over 165,000.
President Marcos stated that they had already built more than 22,000 classrooms over the past three years, and plans to build more through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).
“Hihigitan pa natin ito dahil talagang nakakaawa ang ating mga mag-aaral. Hindi na natin dapat nabibitin ang oras nila sa klase dahil sa kakulangan ng classroom [We will exceed this number because our students truly deserve better. We should no longer cut their class time short due to a lack of classrooms],” he said.
Currently, the government is in the move with private entities to construct 15,000 classrooms that are set to finish by 2027.
Implemented under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) School Infrastructure Project Phase 3 (PSIP 3), the initiative aims to provide learning spaces for over 600,000 students across the country and is expected to create at least 18,000 jobs.
“Maglalaan tayo ng sapat na pondo para rito alang-alang sa ating mga mag-aaral. Hihilingin ko ang suporta ng ating kongreso [We will allocate sufficient funds for this for the sake of our learners. I will seek the support of our Congress],” he added.
Meanwhile, DepEd secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara earlier warned that the country’s massive classroom backlog in classrooms could take up to 55 years to address.
The Department is also addressing classroom shortages, working with the private sector to build 105,000 classrooms to reduce the national backlog. By August, new modular classrooms will be designed for disaster-hit areas.
