The Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday, 16 September, welcomed a measure that seeks to help address the classroom shortage across the country.

During the DepEd's budget hearing, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said Senator Bam Aquino's proposed Classroom-Building Acceleration Program (CAP) Act would help address the backlog of 166,000 classrooms in public schools nationwide.

“We really look forward to the passage of that bill. It’s a breath of fresh air because seeing how over the last decade the classroom deficit has increased year on year,” DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said of Aquino’s Senate Bill (SB) No. 121 during the agency’s budget hearing.

“Your bill is thinking out of the box. It is really creative. It's empowering,” he added.

The CAP Act aims to authorize local government units and non-government organizations (NGOs) with a proven track record to build classrooms in compliance with national standards and guidelines within their jurisdictions, with funding support from the national government.

Aquino said the committee report on the CAP Act will be referred to the plenary in the coming weeks and expressed confidence it could hurdle the Senate by December.

“If we finish it by December, then the classroom acceleration program can be added as an item in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2026,” Aquino, who chairs the Committee on Basic Education and vice chairperson of the Committee on Finance, said.

“If we don’t, we will put in a special provision, which basically is the program. Put it into the GAA so we can undergo the program,” he added, expressing confidence that if given the assistance, the local government units and NGOs can deliver the needed classrooms.

Aquino also assured Angara that under the measure, DepEd would be provided with the necessary manpower to check and monitor the projects undertaken by local government units and NGOs.