Edcom: Keep DPWH out of building classrooms
The national government should start considering partnering with local government units (LGUs) and the private sector in building classrooms rather than rely on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) whose cost of construction is “almost double,” the government body tasked to oversee the country’s education system said on Wednesday.
Senator-commissioners of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) also stressed the “slower” completion of classrooms that are publicly funded compared to private partnerships.
Sen. Bam Aquino, Edcom 2 cochair and chair of the Senate basic education committee, led his first hearing in the 20th Congress to check on the current progress the government was making in addressing the persisting classroom shortage and congestion in public schools nationwide.
Citing findings by the Edcom 2 in its year two report, Aquino said costings on classroom construction vary and are not even standardized.
The price tag of each classroom was at P2.5 million for the Department of Education (DepEd), which was already cheaper than the cost placed by the DPWH at P3.5 million.
However, Aquino cited a case in Dumaguete City wherein the average cost of classrooms stands at P2.1 million when locally funded, while classrooms built through public-private partnerships amounted to only P1.5 million each.
Reporting to Aquino, DPWH officials explained that the costs of classroom construction were at P29,838 to P36,067 per square meter.
Sen. Loren Legarda, commissioner of Edcom 2, voiced her concern about the “almost double cost” of classroom constructions under the DPWH.
“What kind of gold is the DPWH using that the construction cost was almost doubled? Who is building for the DPWH with [more than] P36,000 per square meter and who is building for the private sector that was only at P20,000 per square meter?” Legarda asked in Filipino. “I cannot imagine, for the life of me, [that the price] was almost doubled.”
Delayed completion
During the hearing conducted on Tuesday, Aquino also brought up the time needed to complete a classroom wherein LGU-private sector partnerships would only take less than a year while national government agencies would need years to complete publicly funded projects.
Nongovernmental organizations were invited to the hearing, including the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Angat Buhay Foundation.
The federation told the Senate panel that its “Bari School” program only costs P8,000 to P10,000 per square meter in building schoolhouses, while Angat Buhay’s construction cost was at P862,500 per classroom.
Due to this disparity that appalled senators, Aquino made a proposal to solve the decades-old problem of classroom shortage by filing Senate Bill No. 121, or the proposed Classroom-Building Acceleration Program Act.
Under the proposed legislation, LGUs and private entities will be authorized to build classrooms, but the funding and all other support must come from the national government, according to Aquino.
“If we can’t find a solution for the backlog of classrooms, we’re looking at not just years—but decades—or the problem may persist under five more presidents and we may not even catch up with the shortage if we won’t give this problem the proper attention,” Aquino pointed out.
Students’ struggle
Karol Mark Yee, Edcom 2 executive director, told Aquino in the hearing that teachers and parents would report to them that students struggle to learn if their classrooms are in overcrowded and dilapidated spaces.
“This is a critical reform that needs to be pushed fast; we have no time to waste,” Yee said.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Edcom 2 commissioner and former chair of the Senate committee on basic education, agreed with his successor, recalling his time as Valenzuela City mayor wherein classrooms there would be built simultaneously by private organizations, the LGU and the national government.
Since the classroom constructions in Valenzuela City were constructed simultaneously through the “counterparting program,” building time would only take a year.
DepEd and Edcom 2 have both reported that the country currently has a 165,000-classroom backlog, forcing thousands of students nationwide to have multishift schedules, particularly for Kindergarten to Grade 3 students.
