Marcos to partner with private sector to speed up classroom building

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has commanded all concerned government agencies to collaborate with the private sector to expedite the establishment of more public school classrooms across Ilocos Region.

In a meeting with the Regional Development Council in Dagupan City on May 23, Marcos underlined the need to push public-private partnerships (PPPs) in accelerating  the construction of additional classrooms in the region. 

“President Marcos said that public infrastructure and development projects can be implemented faster and at lower government costs by entering into contracts with the private sector through PPP,”  the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement. 

Marcos reiterated that these kinds of arrangements should be put back in order to hasten the construction of classrooms.

He also recognized the Department of Education’s (DepEd) undertakings in boosting literacy rate in the region, which is traditionally higher than the national average.

“I’m glad to see the intervention at DepEd, the construction of the classrooms. I think we need to accelerate that. I do not think we want to wait until 2030 for all of those classrooms,” Marcos said during the meeting.

DepEd has already proposed the construction of almost 3,000 additional classrooms in the Ilocos Region from 2025 to 2030. 

Under its budget proposal for 2026, the department also proposed hiring more school personnel such as principals, administrative officers, school counselor associates, and project development officers for the region.

Meanwhile, DepEd is filling vacant positions in Ilocos while carrying out annual creation and deployment of teaching items.

In 2023, it can be recounted that DepEd constructed only 192 classrooms out of its target of 6,379.