The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday disclosed positive feedback from local government units (LGUs) over their participation in the Nationwide Classroom Building Program.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara made the statement shortly after the DepEd sealed a partnership with LGUs nationwide, alongside the launch of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in a unified effort to speed up the construction of classrooms in line with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to address classroom backlogs.

“Tuwang-tuwa ang ating mga LGUs (The LGUs are really happy), if I’m not mistaken, kasi si Pangulo talaga, sabi niya (because the President said) let’s empower the local government. Instead of asking them to do things, let’s be true partners,” he told the Philippine News Agency in an ambush interview at Malinta Elementary School.

Unlike the centralized system, he said the partnership will help expedite the delivery of classrooms, considering the actual capacity of the local government.

“The LGUs have a lot of expertise, alam nila saan iyong lupa, alam nila araw-araw, may engineering department sila. May capacity sila (they know where the land is, every day, and they have an engineering department. They have the capacity),” Angara said.

Under the first-time national-to-local partnership, mechanisms across local governments will be unified to help fast-track processes for classroom construction.

For its part, the DepEd Central Office will download funds to support local construction projects.

According to DepEd, the country has a backlog of about 165,000 classrooms. (PNA)