PIDS urges bold reforms as infrastructure lags in solving education crisis

Fernan Carigma

To ease the decades-long backlog in school infrastructure, the Philippines must build at least 7,000 classrooms annually for the next 15 years, but it won't solve the education crisis without bold, scalable reforms, experts from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) warned.

Photo Courtesy of Rappler/Bonz Magsambol.

In a live podcast on July 3 at Centro Escolar University titled “Classroom Shortages and Teacher Quality: Kaya Bang Mag-Level Up ng Polisiya?”, PIDS education experts stressed that systemic reforms must accompany infrastructure development to truly future-proof the country’s education system.

“DepEd is not in the business of constructing buildings. Their mission is improving education, and classrooms are just one part of that,” said Dr. Michael Ralph Abrigo, PIDS Senior Research Fellow and lead author of the study “Low Fertility, Ageing Buildings, and School Congestion in the Philippines,” commissioned by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2).

According to PIDS, as of 2021, the country needed around 108,000 new classrooms, mostly at the elementary level.

In key areas like Metro Manila, CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon), Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos), and BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) regions remain the most critically congested.

In Northern Manila, over 90 percent of elementary students were in classes with 50 or more pupils, while Rizal and Cavite recorded congestion rates of 66 and 57.7 percent, respectively.

“If education is something important to us as a nation, we should be able to put our heads together to address this issue,” Abrigo said.

The demand for classrooms from 2040 to 2060 might potentially be lowered by the declining fertility rates expected to reduce school-age populations nationwide, but PIDS cautioned that regional disparities persist.

By 2040, nearly all wooden and mixed-material classrooms, and half of all concrete ones, will have outlived their expected lifespan unless construction is accelerated, based on the study.

Due to issues in data accuracy, site validation, hazard assessments, and budgeting, building a classroom in the Philippines currently takes an average of three years, with 60% of delays occurring in the planning stage.

“Currently, classroom construction procedures are lengthened by phased budgeting, site verification, bidding, and hazard assessment processes,” Abrigo explained.

PIDS urged the government to adopt flexible and innovative solutions, rather than relying solely on construction.

“There should be a very strategic project management. It’s not just about the budget per se,” said Abrigo, emphasizing the need for a forward-looking national masterplan, updated regularly to track demographic trends and anticipate regional needs.

With the economic growth that comes from having more working-age people than dependents, PIDS also underscored that the Philippines could reap a “demographic dividend”, but only if it invests heavily in human capital.

“The demographic dividend isn’t automatic — we must invest in human capital through education, health, and employment to ensure our future workforce is ready,” Abrigo said.

The country risks wasting its demographic advantage and falling further behind in educational competitiveness, without these investments, PIDS research experts warned.

While building thousands of classrooms yearly is a necessary step, PIDS research experts maintain that classrooms alone are not enough. 

“There should be a very strategic project management. It's not just about the budget per se,” he said.