The Department of Education (DepEd) launched a national initiative Monday to lease private facilities for use as public classrooms, a stopgap measure intended to immediately reduce overcrowding in the country’s most congested schools.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara led the program’s rollout in Pila, a municipality in Laguna province. This marks the first time the department has formally operationalized leasing as a national infrastructure strategy to address the chronic shortage of learning spaces.

The first leased facility serves as an annex for Don Manuel Rivera Memorial Integrated National High School. The move allows senior high school students to move to the nearby site, ending the need for the extreme “shifting” schedules that often reduce instructional time.

“This approach responds to urgent shortages that stretch our teaching resources,” Angara said, adding that leasing will complement — not replace — long-term building projects and public-private partnerships.