September 4, 2024 | 5:49pm
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education under Vice President Sara Duterte finished building just 192 out of its target of 6,379 new classrooms in 2023, according to the Commission on Audit’s report on the agency.
The department’s completion of just 3% of its target new classrooms in 2023 — Duterte’s first and only full-year term as DepEd chief — was “due to realignments because of modifications in the projects’ design,” the Commission on Audit (COA) said in its 2023 annual report.
At the time state auditors conducted their audit, at least 4,391 classrooms were still being built, while construction work had yet to begin for 550 (8%) projects still “under procurement” status.
State auditors also flagged DepEd for repairing only 208 out of its target of 7,550 classrooms. At least 2,135 were still being repaired, while a “very significant target” of 5,207 had yet to be procured, according to the COA.
The COA report also flagged DepEd’s failure to meet its 2023 target of delivering 580,394 school furniture, noting that while the furniture was supposed to arrive between May and June 2023, contracts were only finalized in December of that year. This pushed deliveries into the first quarter of 2024.
DepEd was also flagged by state auditors for its slow progress in building more Last Miles Schools, which are schools put up in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas to cater to students from remote areas.
Using its 2023 budget, DepEd had only built three out of its target of 88 Last Miles Schools, while the funds carried over from 2020 to 2022 were used to build 73 out of 189 schools. Duterte tagged the Last Miles Schools program as a priority of the department in November 2023.
The nationwide classroom shortage currently hovers around 159,000, based on DepEd’s latest estimates, with procurement lapses and difficulty scouting school sites often cited as roadblocks to constructing more school buildings.
Perennial classroom shortage
Annual audit reports of DepEd in previous years show that the agency never completes 100% of its target number of new classrooms constructed, but years when the completion rate falls below 10% are rare.
In 2022, DepEd, which had been newly turned over by former Secretary Leonor Briones to Duterte, completed 74% of its target of new classrooms constructed, according to COA’s report.
Meanwhile, at least 55% of the target was met in 2021, while 40% was built in 2020, while 53% was built in 2019, based on COA documents for those years.
Way forward
Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who replaced Duterte on July 19, said in a press briefing in August that the department must explore new ways of speeding up the procurement process.
This includes initiating early procurement activites before the budget is approved, such as scouting for school sites and conducting soil testing, among others, he said.
“In the past, we only start in January after the budget is approved… Now, we want to fast-track it so that by the time we have an agreement with Congress on the funding, we hope to start the pre-award activities by earlier than the third quarter,” Angara said.
Angara noted that when assumed office in July, DepEd had yet to start construction for certain areas using the 2024 budget.
“Constructing a classroom is a little more complicated than constructing a road. There is more work to be done beforehand, that’s the first,” he added.
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