MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) plans to build another 20,000 classrooms in 2016 for its senior high school program.

“Our target for the 2016 budget, which is for approval, should be at around 20,000 classrooms for senior high school,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said on Tuesday, May 5, as he presented the K to 12 midterm report before the Senate committee on education, arts, and culture.

With the signing of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, two years have been added to the basic education system of the Philippines. (INFOGRAPHIC: 10 things about K to 12)

Around 1.2 million to 1.6 million students under the program will enter senior high school’s grade 11 in 2016, and grade 12 in 2017.

As early as 2014, the department has already closed the 66,813 classroom backlog left by the previous administration.

DepEd’s inventory pegged the number of existing classrooms at a total of about half a million. Of this number, 41,728 will be constructed this year, 30,000 for senior high school. (READ: What goes into the building of classrooms?)

The proposed 20,000 classrooms in 2016, if approved, will be DepEd’s “last major” classroom construction, according to Luistro.

DepEd has identified over 5,800 public schools that will offer senior high school in 2016. Another 1,122 private schools were also given provisional permits to offer the program. – Rappler.com