Uncoordinated housing projects add to school congestion–Edcom2

Lack of coordination and an outdated policy on housing developments have led to severe congestion in many schools, as new communities form and local populations grow without the corresponding infrastructure for education being set up.

This is one of the latest findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2), citing one town in Luzon as an example.

In a statement on Saturday, Edcom 2 noted that in Naic, Cavite, thousands of additional students were enrolled in public schools following the establishment of up to 48 low-cost housing sites in the municipality.

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“Between the end of the school year in March and the opening of classes in June, student enrollment in the town surged by 5,450 learners, creating an immediate deficit of 135 classrooms overnight based on DepEd’s 1:40 ratio,” the commission said.

Specific schools in Naic are now bearing the brunt of the influx, such as Muzon Elementary School where the number of enrollees had risen from 605 to 1,519 in just three months, it said.

Another school, Timalan Hills View, saw the number of students increase from 6,500 to 7,459. They are now forced to share the school’s 32 classrooms.

“Edcom has called attention to this issue since 2024 and has followed up multiple times with the concerned agencies. But up to today, affected schools continue to wait for solutions to their day-to-day crisis,” it said.

Because of the congestion, Edcom 2 said some students have to hold classes in tents or “repurposed” housing units. In other cases, classrooms originally designed for only 40 students have to accommodate up to 80, using monobloc chairs instead of desks to maximize use of the floor space.

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Requirement for developers

According to the commission, the failure to build necessary educational facilities when establishing housing developments “is rooted in outdated policy loopholes,” particularly in the 2008 implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Batas Pambasa No. 220.

Under the IRR, which sets the standards for the development of socialized housing projects in urban and rural areas, Edcom 2 said, “developers are only required to allocate space for school facilities if a single development exceeds 1,500 housing units.”

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“Because many of the 48 individual sites in Naic fall below this threshold, the policy completely fails to account for the massive cumulative impact of multiple adjacent developments,” the commission noted.

Edcom 2 also pointed to a “lack of cooperative planning between government bodies” as the cause of the problem.

The Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) have already signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2025 to “jointly plan and ensure availability of facilities in future sites.”

Local gov’ts ‘in the dark’

However, the commission said, local officials in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon “remain in the dark” when it comes to addressing campus congestion caused by new housing projects.

“How many more areas in the country are experiencing such sudden surges in student enrollment? How many more students started schooling this June, only to be surprised that they could not go to school everyday anymore because of congestion? What could DHSUD and DepEd have done to prevent this?” said Edcom 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee.

The commission called for immediate amendments to BP 220. It also urged DepEd and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to jointly clarify their roles for better coordination on the matter.

“[W]ithout immediate policy intervention and synchronized action from all relevant agencies, the heavy burden of these uncoordinated housing projects will continue to fall directly on the shoulders of Filipino teachers and learners,” the commission said. INQ