Noy: No more classroom backlog by 2013

MANILA, Philippines - The perennial problem of classroom shortage in public schools will be eliminated by 2013 in line with the administration’s flagship Public-Private Partnership program, President Aquino said yesterday.

In a speech delivered at the 4th National Congress of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (Cocopea) at the Quadricentennial Pavilion of the University of Santo Tomas, the President said the educational reforms he initiated helped address the shortage.

“By 2013, there will be further 15,000 classrooms that will come from the PPP program, plus the other donations that will eliminate the shortage of 66,800 classrooms roughly in the third year of our administration,” Aquino said.

Out of the 66,800 classroom shortage when he assumed office in June 2010, he disclosed that the Department of Education (DepEd) under Secretary Armin Luistro has already constructed 15,000 in 2011 and 35,000 more classrooms this year – or a total of 50,000.

DepEd is confident that it will be able to bridge the classroom gap by next year.

Meanwhile, Aquino lauded Cocopea – a private education association – for joining the administration’s efforts in implementing reforms in government, particularly in the education sector.

Cocopea is holding its two-day Congress until today to discuss and examine the current reform initiatives in Philippine education, scrutinize the legislative agenda of the 15th Congress, and identify priority issues and challenges of these reforms.

Luistro, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Secretary Patricia Licuanan and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief Emmanuel Joel Villanueva are the representatives of government to this event.

The President remains committed to providing all Filipinos with the opportunity to learn and become educated individuals so that they may “reach the fullest of their potential.”

He said it was his dream to be able to give all Filipinos a chance to study the same way his parents – slain Sen. Ninoy Aquino and the late President Cory Aquino – accorded him the opportunity to learn.