Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 14) — The Department of Education (DepEd) needs a budget of nearly ₱420 billion to close the country’s classroom gap, a senator said on Monday.
During the hours-long deliberations of DepEd’s proposed budget for 2023, Sen. Pia Cayetano said there is a backlog of 167,901 classrooms nationwide, citing data from the 2019 National School Building Inventory.
“The funding requirement to complete all construction of school buildings and repair… for the 167,901 classroom shortage, that would require ₱419,752,500,” Cayetano said.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said addressing the deficit faces two challenges: sourcing the funds and the absorptive capacity or the ability of the agency to use the budget provided for building the classrooms.
“It’s a challenge to this body and also a responsibility of this body to help look for that ₱420 billion over the years,” Gatchalian said.
Cayetano mentioned that various disasters caused damage to at least 37,000 classrooms from 2016 to 2022. More than 5,500 of these were affected in 2022 alone.
The Senate has approved the ₱678.1-billion proposed 2023 budget of DepEd and its attached agencies.
