MANILA — Senator Sonny Angara on Thursday said the government must extend its “Build, Build, Build” program to the education sector, not only to address the perennial classroom backlog, but also to construct new classrooms for future public school enrollees.
Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, cited budget documents showing that the proposed PHP20-billion allocation for the construction of new public classrooms next year is good for 8,000 rooms, way below the Department of Education’s request of PHP172.5 billion for 64,795 rooms.
Angara noted that on top of the backlog, at least 10,000 new classrooms should be built yearly to house the annual increase in public school enrollees.
“Importante ang ‘Build, Build, Build’ sa edukasyon kasi sino ang magpapatakbo, sino ang mamahala ng mga ipinupundar natin ngayon sa imprastraktura at ekonomiya kundi ang mga graduates ng ating mga paaralan (Build, Build, Build for education is so important, who would benefit from the infrastructure and economy that we are building today if not these graduates),” Angara said.
“Building up our human capital should go hand in hand with our infrastructure and other physical capital development because the latter, like in ICT (information and communication technologies) and trains, would not run on their own,” Angara added.
The lawmaker also pushed for the implementation of a zero-backlog program to complement the “Build, Build, Build” program for education.
“Let’s choose a year of when it will be achieved. And once that’s done, let’s stock up on new classrooms that will be ready in time for new enrollees to come in,” he said.
Angara, however, stressed that the key to the success of a ‘Build, Build, Build” and a zero-classroom backlog drive in schools is for the government to have the technical expertise to overcome planning, procurement, and building challenges.