SENATE Committee on Basic Education Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian on Monday said that the government must consistently fund the construction of classrooms to address the shortage problem that hounded the education department.

During the deliberations of the proposed P678.1-billion budget of the Department of Education for next year, Gatchalian cited the growing shortage of classrooms in public schools caused by the rise of student population.

He estimated that P420 billion is needed to address the backlog of at least 167,000 classrooms.

“Besides looking for fund sources, another problem is the absorptive capacity or the ability of the agency to use the budget provided for building the classrooms,” Gatchalian said.

“It’s a challenge to this body and also a responsibility of this body to help look for that P420 billion over the years…It’s important to bear that in mind, so that every time we craft the budget, we can help divert and allocate some amount to help close the gap of 167,000 classrooms that our students require,” the senator added.

Senator Pia Cayetano, sponsor of DepEd’s budget, admitted that it will take 60 years to completely resolve the classroom shortage.