THE government should take advantage of "good summer weather window" in building classrooms to erase backlog in the critical education resource, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto said on Saturday.
Recto said the government has no excuse in doing such projects, as "critical education projects" are exempt from the public works ban during elections.
With classes in public schools now ended, he said education officials should also use e summer break to hire teachers and buy equipment to equip 21 million students when they return to schools in June.
"Students out, workers in, this should be in the mantra in campuses today. From beehive of learning to beehive of construction," he said.
"There is no excuse to ramp up construction, more so if they have been okayed before the start of the campaign season. This is a good policy because school preparation should not go on a holiday because of the elections," he added.
This year, Recto said 43,000 classrooms will be built at a cost of P61.8 billion. Of the 43,000 new classrooms, 23,000 classrooms are for the Grades 11 and 12, or what constitute senior high school.
On the other hand, he said P18.8 billion will be spent on the initial year's salaries of 62,320 newly-hired or newly-promoted teachers, 40,000 of which are tasked to teach senior high school students.
On top of the said figures, 17,371 non-teaching personnel will also be hired.
Recto said there should be no repeat of the "horrible" delays, which plagued classroom construction and teacher hiring in the past.
"There's no excuse that it is delayed again because this is something, which has been planned in advance," Recto said.
"Putting these resources in place should be the Aquino administration's education legacy. When the President bows out of office in June, teachers should have been hired and classrooms inaugurated," he added.
Adding to the urgency of making the needed acquisition is the enrollment of the first batch of Grade 11 students in June, Recto said.
Recto also urged the Department of Education to fast-track the procurement of 102.3 million textbooks and 4.33 million chairs. (Sunnex)