Aquino says DepEd to fully address classroom backlog by 2016

President Benigno S. Aquino III delivers his sixth and last State of the Nation Address (SONA) during the Joint Session of the 16th Congress at the Session Hall of the House of Representatives Complex in Constitution Hills, Quezon City on Monday (July 27, 2015).
(Photo by Robert Vinas / Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) targets to meet the classroom backlog by 2016, with the 43,000 classrooms to be funded from the proposed 2016 budget, said President Benigno S. Aquino III.

“To meet it (classroom lack), we need to add an estimated 118,000 classrooms. 33,608 of the classrooms were already built. This year, more than 41,000 classrooms are set to be built. The remaining 43,000 classrooms is included in the 2016 budget, that is expected to be passed by tomorrow (July 28),” Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday.

He explained the classroom backlog was due to a student boom of 4.7 million, further citing the K-12 program and soaring enrollee count as the main drivers.

Data from the DepEd as of June 2015, show that 4,684 public schools were identified by DepEd to offer Senior High School (SHS) or K-12 by 2016. DepEd has tapped the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the construction and bidding of the classrooms.

For 2015, the government earmarked a budget of PhP 361.7 billion for DepEd — an increase of 18.6 percent from 2014.

The Aquino administration has been known for giving record-high budgets to the DepEd since 2014, after it has been granted a PhP 335.4 billion budget. It has seen a 14.4 percent rise from the PhP 293.3 billion budget in 2013.