MANILA, Philippines — Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Wednesday urged the private sector to help accelerate classroom construction to address the country’s 165,000-classroom shortage, warning that delays continue to limit learning opportunities for millions of students.
Speaking at a forum organized by Philippine Business for Education (PBED) in Makati City, Angara said the scale of the backlog required stronger public-private collaboration to speed up delivery of school infrastructure.
He said the Department of Education was pursuing large-scale public-private partnerships that could deliver up to 106,000 classrooms in the coming years, with an initial 16,000 units approved under the latest phase of the program.
Angara said traditional government procurement for classrooms could take two to seven years, while PPP arrangements could shorten construction timelines to one to two years by streamlining approvals and consolidating processes.
He said faster construction and expanded private sector participation were critical to closing the nationwide classroom gap and modernizing public schools.
