Quirino Gov. Dakila Cua hailed Vice President Sara Duterte’s plan to address overcrowding in schools by creating more classrooms through a streamlined process.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted what has been a long-existing problem in our schools. Sa panahon ng COVID-19 hindi na pwedeng nagsisiksikan ang mga bata sa paaralan, kaya mahalagang paramihin pa natin ang mga classroom at school building sa buong bansa,” Cua, who heads the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), said.
Cua touted the plan as an “urgent and necessary measure that responds to both immediate and future needs.”
Duterte bared her plans to address classroom shortage last week.
“We are now creating a department order that will streamline requests for classroom construction so that we can prevent adding unimplementable projects and ensure that what we include in the budget request are those that could be immediately constructed,” the secretary of the Department of Education said.
Cua touted the plan as an “urgent and necessary measure that responds to both immediate and future needs.”
“We need more classrooms to accommodate our growing population, and especially as we need our children back in school to get them back on track after years of being sidelined due to the pandemic,” the governor added.
He also expressed hope that Congress would allocate more funds that would allow the government to respond to the classroom shortage.
The DepEd said in 2021 that it needs at least P1 trillion in the next three years to fill the gap, with classroom requirements for the year 2020 at 242,603 classrooms based on data released by the agency.
According to the education department, the figure accounts for 110,954 classroom shortages; 85,524 replacements of classrooms scheduled for condemnation/demolition; and 46,125 classrooms for the Last Mile Schools.
“I call on my former colleagues in Congress to prioritize our education sector to secure our future. Our next generation faces a bleak future unless we put our heads down to address the education crisis,” said Cua.
