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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
February 11, 2026 | 5:10pm
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. leads the signing ceremony of a memorandum of agreement between the Department of Education and various provinces to build more classrooms on Feb. 11, 2026.
Presidential Communications Office via Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — A formal agreement has been signed allowing local government units (LGUs) to take the lead in building classrooms in their respective areas—effectively decentralizing the process from the national government.
The Philippines suffers a massive shortage in classrooms, with the country lacking some 165,000 learning spaces. The problem is further exacerbated by massive corruption in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which only managed to complete 22 out of 1,700 planned classrooms in 2025.
Through a memorandum of agreement signed at Malacañan Palace, the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) will now be transmitted to 82 provinces so that they can be directly responsible for classroom building.
“By giving the LGUs greater role in the implementation, we streamline the process. We reduce delays, and move faster in building schools that our children need. For students, it means classrooms will be completed sooner. For our teachers, it translates to a safer, a more conducive environment that they can teach in. And for parents, this gives them peace of mind, knowing that their children are learning in better facilities,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said during the signing ceremony on Wednesday, February 11.
The president is confident that decentralizing classroom building will allow greater accountability on the local level, and avoid instances of ghost projects, as was seen with the DPWH.
A total of P85.39 billion was allotted in the 2026 national budget for classrooms in the DepEd budget, which will be released in tranches, Marcos said.
The first tranche amounted to P9.6 billion, which is expected to translate to 4,000 classrooms.
While this will not immediately close the classroom gap, Marcos said that other solutions, such as private-public partnerships, are also underway.
“This administration has been finding all kinds of alternative ways that we can immediately close this yawning gap. Because we cannot wait another five or ten years to ensure that every student has a comfortable classroom,” Marcos said.
