The Department of Education (DepEd) announced on Tuesday that tackling the nation’s educational challenges, including the deficit of 165,000 classrooms, necessitates a multi-faceted approach.
“Education is not solely the duty of schools or educators,” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara remarked to reporters in Filipino during an interview.
“Families, communities, and barangays must also participate in nurturing and educating the youth,” he emphasized.
On average, Mr. Angara indicated that the department constructs approximately 6,000 new classrooms each year.
“We will start building in regions that require it the most, which are generally urban areas in Region 4A,” Mr. Angara stated in a distinct interview during the announcement of DepEd’s Quality Basic Education Development Plan (QBEDP).
“These regions are densely populated, which causes a double to triple shift,” he noted.
During President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), he mentioned that the administration aims to construct 40,000 new classrooms by 2028 through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
To facilitate the construction of additional classrooms nationwide and impart essential Filipino values to children via literature, a collaboration between DepEd, Jollibee, and Adarna House was inaugurated on Tuesday.
Under this collaboration, P5 from each purchase of a “Kids Values Meal” will contribute to the Jollibee Group Foundation’s Classroom Building Project, which aspires to provide Joy Learning Centers in various areas across the country by 2028.
“I believe it’s crucial for companies like Jollibee to share the common vision of cultivating the next generation of Filipinos who are not only intelligent but also rich in values,” Dorothy-Dee Ching, vice president for marketing at Jollibee, told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the occasion.
“This collaboration is a fantastic public-private partnership that can aid our nation in progressing,” she added.
Intensifying the initiative
According to former DepEd Secretary Armin B. Luistro, the government needs to construct at least 25,000 educational facilities each year to replace those that are damaged or deemed unusable.
“Every year, you would need to construct around 25,000 classrooms to substitute the 10 to 12-year-old classrooms,” he explained to BusinessWorld in an interview.
Mr. Luistro noted that during his tenure as the head of the department, they had to amplify their efforts in classroom construction to address the backlog. “Throughout the six-year term, we were constructing 84 classrooms each day.”
“It wasn’t solely DepEd’s effort. The LGUs (local government units) assisted, including the private sector, and even the budget from PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) was allocated to DepEd specifically for classroom construction,” he added. – Almira Louise S. Martinez