Region 4-A or Calabarzon has the highest classroom shortage in the country with 31,002, a ranking official of the Department of Education (DepEd) revealed yesterday. At a forum in Makati City, DepEd Undersecretary for strategic management Ronald Mendoza noted that the deficit has grown over time, largely due to population growth.
The National Capital Region followed Region 4-A with 24,847 classrooms needed, while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao ranked third with 13,237. Among the provinces in Calabarzon, Cavite has the largest deficit at 8,832 classrooms, followed by Rizal with 8,516 and Laguna with 7,589.
Across the island groups, Luzon accounts for 54 percent of the national classroom shortage, which has reached a total of 165,443. Other regions with significant shortages include Region 3 (13,119), Region 7 (10,857), Region 10 (10,333), Region 11 (8,532), Region 12 (8,281), Region 5 (7,415), and Region 9 (6,653).
The DepEd targets to build 105,000 classrooms from 2026 to 2031 under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. “Under the public-private modality for classroom construction, we have a first wave of at least 15,000 PPP classrooms costing roughly P60 billion, followed by waves of 40,000 and 50,000 PPP-built classrooms,” Mendoza said.
In addition to the PPP-built classrooms, the department plans to construct 12,000 classrooms directly, accept 4,500 through donations, pursue 3,000 via negotiated procurement, provide 2,500 through a voucher program and lease 1,500 classrooms. These initiatives aim to address the growing educational needs amid ongoing population growth.