The Department of Education (DepEd) under Vice President Sara Duterte completed just 192 out of its target of 6,379 new classrooms in 2023, according to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) latest report. This represents only 3% of the department’s goal for new classroom construction last year.
The shortfall in completing the targeted classrooms was attributed to “realignments due to modifications in the projects’ design,” as stated in the COA’s 2023 annual report. As of the time of the audit, 4,391 classrooms were still under construction, while 550 projects were “under procurement” and had not yet begun.
In addition to the classroom construction delays, DepEd also fell short of its target to repair 7,550 classrooms, managing to repair only 208. A significant number of repairs, totaling 5,207 classrooms, remained unprocured, while 2,135 were still undergoing repairs.
The COA report further highlighted DepEd’s failure to deliver on its 2023 target of 580,394 pieces of school furniture. Although these were expected to be delivered between May and June 2023, the contracts were only finalized in December, causing the deliveries to be delayed until the first quarter of 2024.
DepEd’s efforts to build more Last Miles Schools, which are intended for geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, were also criticized. Only three out of the targeted 88 Last Miles Schools were constructed with the 2023 budget, while funds from 2020 to 2022 were used to build 73 out of 189 schools.
The nationwide shortage of classrooms stands at approximately 159,000, with challenges in procurement and site selection often cited as major barriers to progress.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who took over from Duterte in July, emphasized the need for reforms in the procurement process to expedite construction. He suggested that pre-award activities, such as scouting school sites and conducting soil testing, should begin before the budget is formally approved. “Constructing a classroom is a little more complicated than constructing a road,” Angara noted in a PhilStar report, underscoring the complexities involved in the process.
DepEd’s track record over recent years shows varying completion rates: 74% in 2022, 55% in 2021, 40% in 2020, and 53% in 2019, indicating that while the department often misses its targets, the 3% completion rate in 2023 was particularly low.