THE DEPARTMENT of Education will need P100 billion yearly to fill up the classroom shortage, an official said.

Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said that the department is exploring other sources of funding to address the classroom gap.

The country needs 165,000 additional classrooms.

“We’re already looking at seven-year projection to address this gap, but we need P100 billion a year to be able to zero out the shortage of classrooms all over the country,” Densing said in an interview at an event organized by the Japanese Embassy.

In 2022, the DepEd was given P15.6 billion for classroom construction, equivalent to 6,421 new classrooms for 2023.

Densing said they are also eyeing the repair and renovation of classrooms to address the lack of facilities.

“For this year, our goal is to focus on classrooms that needed repairs and rehabilitation, 20,830 being able to house learning facilities [for] more than 80,000 students,” he said.

The Japanese government has donated around ₱25.2 million under the Grant Assistance for Grass-Roots Human Security Projects.

Japanese Ambassador Koshikawa Kazuhiko signed contracts on Thursday to build a two-story six-classroom elementary school building in Ilog, Negros Occidental.

Densing thanked the Japanese government for its donation.

“We’re very happy these are sources where we can put up classroom that are outside our budget so this is our strategy right now with the shortage of classrooms all over the country we’re looking sources outside our national budget,” he said.