The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Wednesday called out the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for its ‘abysmal performance’ in its classroom building target and completion rate.
ACT chairperson Ruby Bernardo said that the target of 1,700 classrooms by the DPWH was not even enough to address the 165,000 classroom shortage.
‘This is enraging considering that many teachers and students are suffering from our situations in classrooms,’ Bernardo said in a statement.
‘Thousands of students are being crowded in small classrooms and some classrooms are being divided.’
‘This is a clear case of negligence of the state to the education sector and to the rights of students when it comes to our education quality,’ she pointed out.
Bernardo also called out the ‘extreme low completion rates’ of classrooms, saying this only revealed the government’s ‘true priorities’-which is to invest billions of pesos to the flood control projects which are now under scrutiny while quality education infrastructure was ‘completely abandoned.’
She was also skeptical over the proposed Classroom-Building Acceleration Program (CBAP), wherein lawmakers want to involve local government units (LGUs) and the private sector in addressing the persistent nationwide classroom shortage.
‘Instead of outsourcing its responsibility, the Marcos administration and the DepEd (Department of Education) must fix and streamline the classroom construction process, hold erring officials accountable for anomalies and corruption in school building projects, and ensure that agencies mandated to deliver these services are competent, transparent and credible,’ Bernardo said.
She urged the Marcos administration to address the worsening classroom shortage, as well as the broader education crisis and to increase the education budget equivalent to 6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) under the international guidelines.
‘While billions are wasted on corruption, public schools continue to suffer from the lack of teachers, education support personnel, classrooms, textbooks and basic facilities,’ Bernardo said.
‘This is nothing less than a grave injustice to teachers, learners and the Filipino people,’ she also said. /gsg