The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P31.8 billion to fund the construction and rehabilitation of classrooms across the country to meet the increasing number of students.
The funds were released to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the construction or rehabilitation of 22,325 classrooms nationwide as determined by the Department of Education (DepEd) to ultimately bolster the K to 12 Program.
Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the amount of P31.8 billion will be charged against the DepEd’s provision and maintenance of basic educational facilities, also known as the basic educational facilities fund (BEFF) under the 2014 national budget.
“Every year, we face the need to build more classrooms due to the growing number of public school students. Fortunately, we’re able to keep pace by allotting yearly increases in budgetary support for quality classrooms. With enough public funds for our education system, we can construct new school buildings or rehabilitate damaged classrooms,” Abad said in a news statement released on Monday.
The completion of construction and repair of additional classrooms takes time, said Abad, saying the process of determining the number of targets “is exhaustive.”
“But we’re confident of achieving these requirements as the success of the administration’s K to 12 school program depends on our efforts,” Abad said.
The additional classrooms are intended to augment shortage in areas where schools were damaged by typhoons and natural calamities, as well as support the needs for classrooms for the K to 12 implementation.
Of the said amount, the P28.3 billion is specifically allocated to the BEFF for the “construction, replacement, and/or completion of kindergarten, elementary and secondary school buildings and technical vocational laboratories, and the construction of water and sanitation facilities” as stated in the 2014 national budget.
The funds were released directly to the DPWH which has been tasked to implement the construction of the classrooms based on a list of school buildings and work program submitted by the DepEd.