The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday, Aug. 11, disclosed that there is a shortage of classrooms in Metro Manila and Calabarzon for the upcoming opening of in-person classes.

In a joint press conference of DepEd and Office of the Vice president, Atty. Michael Wesly Poa, the spokesperson of the education department, said that the lack of classrooms will result in a congested room.

“May mga schools na reported na mga 68 students pa per classroom,” he said.

To address the insufficiency of classrooms, Poa said they will implement shifting schedules.

“Ang unang strategy po natin diyan ay shifting schedules sa kanila. Hopefully, mga dalawang shifts lang. Kung hindi talaga kaya, then dun tayo mag tatatlo [na shifts], ” he said.

The DepEd spox shared that this strategy will avoid overcrowded and ensure that physical distancing is observed among students.

He added that blended learning is also an option to resolve the shortage of classrooms.

For schools that were hard hit by the magnitude 7 earthquake in July, Poa said they plan to coordinate with the local government units (LGU) to use covered courts as temporary learning spaces.

DepEd earlier requested an additional Php 2.1 billion budget for 2023 to the Department of Budget Management (DBM). The requested budget will cover repairs and construction of damaged classrooms in Northern Luzon.

As of Aug. 3, DepEd reported a total of 427 schools were affected by the North Luzon earthquake. About 621 classrooms were damaged and 1,271 were partially damaged.