The Department of Education plans to set a standard cost for constructing new classrooms in a bid to curb overpricing and speed up school building amid a 148,000-classroom backlog.
DepEd Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Aurelio Paulo Bartolome said the department will form a joint task force with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and local governments to establish a “unified” classroom cost nationwide.
“Ipapako na talaga natin ang cost ng classroom (We will put a fixed cost for classrooms),” the DepEd assistant secretary said in an interview with Radyo DZBB on Thursday, October 23. “[This is] to minimize corruption, increase transparency, and to at least ensure we’re all working off the same page.”
Tackling bottlenecks
DepEd’s push for a uniform classroom price comes as the department presses Congress to loosen rules that have made DPWH the sole agency with the power to build classrooms since 2018 – a change that Education Secretary Sonny Angara says is needed given bottlenecks and corruption at DPWH.
Besides the private sector, DepEd has also been looking to local governments to help accelerate classroom construction, Bartolome said.
He noted that many LGUs have the capacity – and often the greater incentive – to put up school buildings faster.
‘There are many local governments that have the capacity and know-how to build classrooms,’ Bartolome said. ‘The advantage is that these classrooms will serve their own communities – and no one cares more for their people than their local leaders.’
To ensure transparency and prevent price manipulation, Bartolome said the task force will ‘lock in’ agreed cost estimates for standard school buildings, depending on size and structure type.
Currently, Bartolome estimates a complete classroom – including chairs, blackboards, whiteboards, and electrical fixtures – to cost between P2.5 and 3 million.
The price varies depending on whether the structure is single-story or multi-story, the DepEd official added.
“It has to be the right size, disaster-ready. It has to be PWD-friendly and to have other features in our minimum specific requirements,” Bartolome said.
DepEd plans to share the unified classroom cost at a summit on November 20 in Clark, Pampanga, where it will also present the extent and location of the classroom shortage, display a mock-up classroom, and outline its minimum requirements and standards.
900-classroom backlog. While the national shortage sits at around 148,000, DepEd is currently facing a 900-classroom backlog under the 2025 Basic Education Facilities Fund, purportedly due to the DPWH’s slow pace, having completed only 22 out of 1,000 classrooms targeted for this year.
Malacañang said Wednesday that DepEd, DPWH, and LGUs have agreed to build 2,370 classrooms through 2026, though only 200 are expected to be finished by year’s end.