ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro (left), Vice President SaraDuterte (PPAB, Facebook)

Constructing 2,201 new classrooms in 2023 is nothing to brag about if the actual classroom shortage in the country is nearly 75 times the figure. 

Thus, said House Deputy Minority leader ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, who bared that there is a need for at least 165,000 classroom in the Philippines. 

Castro, a member of the Makabayan bloc, said the Department of Education (DepEd) missed its own target for the year as far as new classrooms are concerned. 

"Ang DepEd mismo ang nagtarget na mga 5,000-6,000 ang mga silid-aralan na maipapagawa nitong 2023. Disyembre 31 na pero 2,201 lang ang nagawa, ni wala sa kalahati ng sarili nilang target tapos may gana pang ipagmalaki na magandang accomplishment daw ito, napakababa naman ng standard ng Kalihim ng DepEd," she said. 

(DepEd itself set a target of 5,000 to 6,000 new classrooms for 2023. It's already Dec. 31 but only 2,201 were built, it's not even half of their own target. And now they have the temerity to boast about this accomplishment, the DepEd secretary has low standards.) 

Castro was obviously sniping at Vice President Sara Duterte, the concurrent education secretary, with her statements. 

There has been no love lost between the Makabayan bloc and the Vice President, with the former taking the latter to task for the spending of P125 million worth of confidential funds in just 11 days in December 2022. 

“As the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines pointed out, the gravity of the classroom crisis necessitates a more ambitious and long-term plan," said Castro, who is herself a former teacher. 

"Only through constructing 50,000 classrooms every year up can we improve the learning conditions, and remove major roadblocks to education recovery,” she underscored. 

Castro further says its a "baseless claim" that constructing 50,000 classrooms per year is impossible since DepEd was able to build 100,936 classrooms for three years from 2014 to 2016. 

"From 2014 to 2018, the budget allocations for classroom construction range from P39 billion to P109 billion yearly. It had been done and it can be done again if only the current administration were sincere in addressing the classroom crisis as well as the bigger learning crisis," she said.