To help resolve the classroom shortage issues in megacities, the Department of Education (DepEd) has come up with new medium to high-rise school building designs.
Education Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del B. Pascua said that DepEd is continuously upgrading public school buildings to “conform with the changing environment.”
These efforts, he added, aim to solve the problem of classroom shortage in areas where the number of learners is constantly growing. “These school buildings will help our teachers, learners, and parents have their conducive spaces for learning and collaboration,” he added.
DepEd is set to exhibit its medium to high-rise building designs on March 29 at the Rizal I Lobby in DepEd Central Office, Pasig City.
“The exhibit will showcase the salient designs of the medium to high-rise buildings to be constructed in highly urbanized and congested areas in the country,” DepEd said.
DepEd proposed the construction of medium to high-rise school buildings in urbanized areas where there is a dense population but limited land areas for development given the limited sites available for schools to acquire and build on.
School building designs, DepEd explained, may range from at least five- to 12-story, depending on the required classroom needs of the school, the building space, the type of soil, and the projected enrollment population of the school for the next 15 to 25 years.
DepEd based the plans and designs on the latest construction technologies, the department's Minimum Performance and Specifications (MPSS), and the National Building Code (NBC).
Classroom requirements
Citing the latest classroom inventory and enrollment data, DepEd has identified 167,901 classrooms that need to be built in all public elementary and secondary schools with remaining classroom requirements.
Related to this, Pascua encouraged the local government units, private sector, and other basic education stakeholders to partner with the national government in the construction of school buildings.
“We urge our partners, stakeholders, and local government units to take part in our plans of solving the classroom shortage in the country,” Pascua said.
“This will help our learners to have a conducive learning environment, and it will advance the basic education in the country,” he added.