As the agency shares public concern over the slow pace of classroom construction this year, the Department of Education (DepEd) is pushing for flexibility under the 2026 budget so that projects may be implemented not only by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to accelerate classroom construction.
Under current rules, the DPWH implements all DepEd-funded school building projects.
In a statement released to the media by Dennis E. Legaspi, DepEd Chief Media Relations Officer, it noted that DPWH’s heavy workload, late validation and costing submission, and leadership changes have caused delays, with only 22 classrooms completed so far under the 2025 BEFF for new construction.
From July 2022 to July 2025, DepEd and DPWH completed 22,092 classrooms nationwide-reducing the backlog from about 165,443 to 146,708.
‘The current delays are temporary and we remain focused on catching up,’ the DepEd said.
DepEd is pushing for flexibility under the 2026 budget so that projects may be implemented not only by DPWH but also by DepEd, local government units, partners such as the Armef Forces of the Philippines Engineering Brigades, and through Public-Private Partnership.
DepEd proposed the inclusion of a special provision on implementation flexibility in the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) as early as the first quarter of 2025.
‘We will also launch an online classroom dashboard for public tracking of classroom needs and construction progress and host a Classroom Summit on November 20 to strengthen collaboration and transparency,’ it added.