'Only 771 public schools congested'

MANILA, Philippines - Only 771 public schools will suffer heavy congestion this coming school year, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said yesterday.

During the launch of the Greater Opportunities (GO!) Education campaign to pursue reforms in the basic education system, the Department of Education (DepEd) revealed the results of its efforts to build classrooms in response to the classroom shortage of 66,800 in 2010.

Luistro said they expect the classroom shortage to decrease by 19,579 with the funds allocated from the 2012 budget targeted to build classrooms and school buildings.

DepEd is also in the process of tapping the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme to build an additional 10,000 classrooms over and above the programmed classroom construction funded by their regular budget.

““The congestion is only seen in certain regions like Metro Manila,” Luistro said.

He pointed out that the classroom shortage in Metro Manila is also limited to certain divisions and certain cities like Quezon City and some “relocation areas” like Payatas in Batasan Hills as the media and some education stakeholder groups tend to frequent these areas during the opening of classes every year.

The 771 identified schools that will experience congestion problem were computed based on a class size of 45 students with two class shifts.

Luistro added that with the enthusiastic and positive support of private sector groups such as Philippine Business for Education (PBED), the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII), and the League of Corporate Foundations, DepEd is targeting to solve the classroom shortage by as early as 2013.

Earlier, PBSP spearheaded a TEN Moves project to tap corporate donations to build 10,000 classrooms.