A recent Manila Bulletin news story highlighted a persistent and troubling reality: The Philippines continues to grapple with an alarming shortage of classrooms and a deepening digital divide. These twin crises are more than logistical headaches. They threaten to derail the country’s aspirations to attain inclusive and equitable education.

Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara has formally launched a Five Point Reform Agenda to address entrenched challenges in the education system. At its core, this blueprint targets: 1) Improving school infrastructure, 2) Enhancing teacher training, 3) Updating curricula, 4) Strengthening leadership, and 5) Ensuring accessibility for all learners. The sharp contrast between policy and reality is stark. Classroom backlogs are estimated at 165,000, a gap so wide that conventional construction at the current pace would take decades to fill.

Angara’s infrastructure push, especially the ambition to build the classrooms via public–private partnerships and to deploy disaster ready modular units, seeks to put in place vital reforms. The effectiveness of this hinges on swift, transparent execution. The sheer scale of the backlog demands urgency and robust oversight.

Parallel to physical infrastructure, the digital divide looms large. Many Last Mile Schools remain poorly equipped with internet or power. Hence, the Public School Infrastructure Program (PSIP) initiative is aimed at delivering solar power, connectivity, and digital devices to remotely-located schools. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic experience, ensuring online access is no longer simply an option but has become imperative.

On the teacher front, the agenda rightly promotes capacity building. Yet data reveals that some two-thirds of high school teachers currently teach subjects outside their major, and over half of public schools lack principals altogether. Without targeted efforts to professionalize and support educators through upskilling and leadership programs, systemic learning outcomes remain vulnerable. Angara’s agenda includes strengthening teacher training, leadership, and governance. Translating that into real classroom impact requires aggressive investment in both human and technical resources.

Curriculum modernization is also on the list, with Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) and strengthened senior high school (SHS) programs aligning with labor market needs. This is timely, given that many learners fall behind early on due to foundational deficits and class shortages.

Finally, the agenda underscores inclusivity—extending feeding programs, mental health services, child protection, disaster resilient learning options, alternative learning systems (ALS) and Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) systems. Still, it must be emphasized that food alone cannot build classrooms, and counseling cannot bridge connectivity gaps.

Secretary Angara’s Five Point Reform Agenda charts a commendable, holistic course forward by targeting infrastructure, teaching strength, curriculum, leadership, and inclusivity. Yet, lofty policy must be matched by razor sharp implementation. To confront the twin crises of classroom shortages and the digital divide, DepEd must accelerate its PPP classroom projects, ensure that PSIP Connect reaches every off grid school, and empower educators with the training and leadership they desperately need.

These reforms are not mere administrative reforms; they are the linchpin of the nation’s future. If executed with speed and transparency, Angara’s agenda could transform our education landscape. If not, hundreds of thousands of Filipino learners may continue to lag behind, hindered by physical and digital inequities.