DepEd eyes PPP scheme in solving lack of classrooms

DepEd Sec. Juan Edgardo Angara

MANILA, Philippines — In order to address the country’s perennial lack of classrooms, the government is seeking the help of the private sector to reach its target of building 1,000 such structures.

“What we are pushing for right now is public-private partnerships (PPP),” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara said in a statement on Wednesday. “We will [ask] the private sector to bid on the construction of 1,000 school buildings,” he added.

According to the Department of Education (DepEd), schools nationwide are lacking over 165,000 classrooms based on 2023 data.

READ: Lack of classrooms hounds Western Visayas schools

But due to the government’s limited resources, Angara has turned to private companies and enterprises for help in addressing the shortage, pointing to the tax benefits they can avail of under the DepEd’s Adopt-A-School program.

“Some businessmen or charitable organizations may be unaware [of this but] when they donate a school building, it will be deductible [from] their taxable income,” he said.

Angara made the call to the private sector during a recent dialogue with school officials and teachers at La Paz, Tarlac, where he led the blessing and inauguration of Tarlac State University’s extended building.

The new structure, which would be named after his father, former Sen. Edgardo Angara, was funded by the DepEd secretary when he was still in the Senate. —Gillian Villanueva