“In fact, I did a simple analysis … and I found that it takes them about two years to build classrooms from start to end,” he said on Thursday during deliberations on the proposed P605.74-billion DepEd budget for 2021. School enrollment increases yearly by a net average of 1.5 percent to 2 percent, which is equivalent to an additional 10,000 total classroom requirement, it said. He said Public Works Secretary Mark Villar told him during Wednesday’s deliberations on the DPWH budget that they received the DepEd funds only in June. Sen. Pia Cayetano, the sponsor of the DepEd budget, disagreed with Gatchalian in cutting the allocation for classroom construction, citing the assessment of experts that infrastructure spending was a major economic driver. “The fund goes to DepEd, and they transfer the fund to DPWH, and DPWH constructs it nationwide.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer November 20, 2020 21:22 UTC