The Department of Education (DepEd) held a summit on Thursday to tackle years of construction delays and introduce a new, organized approach to building classrooms, with the goal of improving flexibility, transparency and accountability in its infrastructure projects.

This gathering signaled a shift from the previous system, which was hampered by fragmented information and slow coordination that contributed to a nationwide classroom backlog estimated at 165,000 in 2022.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the event aimed to “break patterns that have held the system back and reinforce the education agenda of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.”

“We all know this is one of our more intractable problems at DepEd, and we’re hoping today’s activities will help provide clear solutions and ways forward,” Angara said.

He added that DepEd is “committed to working with various actors both in and out of government to make the President’s plan succeed.”

A key development at the summit was the launch of the Strategic Resource Inventory for Deployment Efficiency Dashboard.