Angara: Build classrooms for future enrolees, not just catch up on backlogs

MANILA, Philippines — Government should build in advance classrooms for future enrollees instead of simply catching up with backlogs, Senator Sonny Angara said Thursday.

“I think we should now implement a zero-backlog program. Let’s choose a year of when it will be achieved. And once that’s done, let’s stock up on new classrooms that will be ready in time for new enrolees to come in,” Angara said Thursday in a statement.

Angara made the recommendation as the Department of Education (DepEd) reported only 8,000 out of its proposed 64,795 classrooms was approved in its 2020 budget.

READ: DepEd proposed 64,000 classrooms, got funding for only 8,000

“Forecasted naman ang enrolees sa mga DepED schools and state universities and colleges (SUC). For DepEd, every increase of 400,000 enrollees should ideally birth 10,000 new classrooms,” Angara said.

“With that as basis, we can construct the anticipated needs. For once, let’s be ahead of the demand curve,” he added.

Angara stressed that government must extend its ‘Build, Build, Build’ program to the education sector in order for his proposal to be realized.

“Importante ang ‘Build, Build, Build’ sa edukasyon kasi sino ang magpapatakbo, sino ang mamahala ng mga ipinupundar natin ngayon sa imprastraktura at ekonomiya kundi ang mga graduates ng ating mga paaralan?” Angara said.

“Building up our human capital should go hand in hand with our infrastructure and other physical capital development because the latter, like in ICT (information and communications technology) and trains, would not run on their own,” he continued.  /muf