THE Department of Education (DepEd) Mandaue City Division is hopeful that incoming mayor Thadeo “Jonkie” Ouano will address the city’s classroom shortage, citing the need for around 500 additional classrooms to ensure that all students can attend full-day classes.
DepEd Mandaue City Schools Division Superintendent Bianito Dagatan said in an interview on Thursday, May 29, 2025, that currently, most of the 49 public schools in the city operate on a double-shift system, where students attend either morning or afternoon sessions due to the lack of available classrooms.
This affects the quality of education, limits learning time and places added strain on teachers and facilities.
“Honestly speaking, the local government units have money to build classrooms. The question is where to build them,” Dagatan said.
“For example, Paknaan Elementary School is highly congested because that barangay has the biggest population, but there’s no available land for construction. That’s why we will ask the City for help,” he added.
Dagatan said if the ideal number of classrooms is met, schools can transition to single-shift schedules, providing students with more instructional hours and a more conducive learning environment.
“We estimate that we need around 500 additional classrooms to fully address the demand. This would help us eliminate the current shifting system in many schools,” said Dagatan.
However, the biggest challenge remains the availability of land where these classrooms can be constructed.
Dagatan said with Mandaue’s status as a highly urbanized city, the cost of land has become a major barrier.
“It’s not just the construction of buildings that’s the issue. It’s really the lack of available, affordable land. Properties in the city are expensive, and space is limited,” he added.
Sought for comment, Ouano, in a message to SunStar Cebu, pointed out that he had yet to assume office and manage the transition.
Ouano wondered why the issue had not been raised earlier with the Local School Board, which is chaired by the mayor and includes the DepEd superintendent as a member.
He also pointed out that the City has substantial resources allocated for education, particularly through the Special Education Fund (SEF), which he said amounted to over P400 million in 2024 and P700 million in 2025.
“I will look into its use and see what should be prioritized,” Ouano said.
Despite the challenges of land scarcity and rising student enrollment, Dagatan is hopeful that the incoming local administration will maintain, if not exceed, the current administration’s level of support for public education.
There are over 65,000 students enrolled in public schools across Mandaue City.
The lack of teachers has not been the major problem, Dagatan said adding that the current teacher shortage is minimal, mainly in senior high school.
The city has a teacher-learner ratio of 1:37 in the senior high level, and only around 30 teacher positions are still vacant.
However, 39 new teaching items are already in the process of being filled, he added.
“We already have the teachers. But the teachers need classrooms,” he said.
As of the School Year 2024- 2025, enrollment in Mandaue’s public schools reached approximately 65,000 students—39,000 in elementary and 26,000 in junior and senior high school.
Dagatan expects a modest one to two percent increase in enrollment in the coming school year based on historical trends.
However, he also observed that while some schools have experienced a decline in enrollment possibly due to demolitions or relocations, others see increases, indicating a shift rather than a net reduction.
“When one school’s enrollment goes down another’s goes up. It just means families are moving around the city. The overall number still grows,” he noted.
Dagatan said in his more than 30 years of public service across postings in Bohol, Negros, and Cebu City, he has consistently observed strong support for education, regardless of political transitions.
“In all my years of service, I’ve never encountered a local administration that wasn’t supportive of education. Even with changes in leadership, we’ve always seen commitment to education. That gives us confidence that the new administration, taking office this July, will offer the same or even greater support,” said Dagatan.
In a GMA News report, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said the classroom backlog nationwide still stands at 165,000, a problem expected to have an impact when the incoming school year starts.
Three weeks before School Year 2025-2026 opens on June 16, Angara admitted that some public schools may again need to implement shifting of classes—some double, others triple, even—due to the lack of classrooms.
Under the 2025 General Appropriations Act, P28 billion of DepEd’s budget was appropriated for basic education facilities, which includes P7.18 billion for the construction of new kindergarten, elementary, and secondary school buildings.
It also includes a P6.13 billion budget for the rehabilitation, renovation, repair and improvement of school buildings under the “Repair All Policy.” / CAV