THE DEPARTMENT of Education held its first-ever Classroom Summit on Thursday, focusing on strengthening planning and procurement readiness by engaging contractors, suppliers, and partners to align with market capacities and innovations.

The summit brought together government agencies, private contractors, local governments, and development partners to address delays in classroom construction and promote flexibility, innovation, transparency, accountability, and good governance in education infrastructure.

DepEd noted that the classroom backlog—estimated at 165,000 nationwide in 2022—was previously managed through fragmented information and slow coordination, resulting in delays across regions.

The summit marked a shift toward a more organized approach, with stakeholders reviewing classroom prototypes, participating in technical breakout sessions, and discussing construction capacity ahead of DepEd’s 2026 infrastructure rollout.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the event aims to break patterns that have hindered the system and reinforce the education agenda of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“We all know this is one of our more intractable problems at DepEd, and we hope today’s activities will help provide clear solutions and a way forward. DepEd is committed to working with various actors, both in and out of government, to make the President’s plan succeed,” Angara said.

A key development during the summit was the launch of the Strategic Resource Inventory for Deployment Efficiency Dashboard, a new platform that consolidates enrollment, staffing, and infrastructure data. The tool enables regional and division offices to make more informed decisions about where classrooms and personnel are most urgently needed, allowing field offices to visualize mapped data and refine their planning more accurately.