# Classroom Shortage in NCR, 2023–2026: Shifts and Crowding

Metro Manila lacked 24,866 classrooms in 2023, and 62.2% of its schools held classes in shifts in SY 2024-25, against 4.3% nationally.

This is the Markdown copy of [Classroom Shortage in NCR, 2023–2026: Shifts and Crowding](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-ncr), an article on the NASH Reviewer Blog by Mark Anthony Llego, published Oct 28, 2026, updated Nov 4, 2026. Topics: DepEd data, School resources. NASH Reviewer is an independent practice platform not affiliated with DepEd, BHROD, or NEAP.

The National Capital Region (NCR, or Metro Manila) lacked 24,866 classrooms in 2023, according to DepEd's classroom shortage data as published in the EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard. That is 15.0% of the country's shortage of 165,443 classrooms, the second largest of the 18 regions after Region IV-A. Measured against learners, the region is short 12.2 classrooms for every 1,000 learners enrolled in SY 2024-25, 1.7 times the national rate of 7.4 and second only to BARMM.

What sets Metro Manila apart is how schools live with the shortage. In SY 2024-25, 515 of its 828 schools in the enrollment data (62.2%) held classes in two or more shifts, against 4.3% nationally, and those schools enroll 73.2% of the region's learners. The median elementary school has 51.5 learners for each classroom, more than twice the national 24.9. The shortage is also spread across nearly every school rather than piled in a few: 80.4% of NCR's schools have one, and the median school with a shortage lacks 26.0 classrooms, against 3.0 nationally. The School Building Program (SBP) 2026 lists 4,584 classrooms for the region, 18.4% of its shortage and close to the national 19.6%, but 83.1% of them are PSIP III public-private partnership classrooms that are still for bidding.

The figures below cover Metro Manila's 16 schools divisions, its 16 cities and the municipality of Pateros, from the cleaned school-level data behind the dashboard. Every file is listed on the [EDCOM II classroom data page](https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data).

## Key findings

- NCR lacked 24,866 classrooms in 2023, 15.0% of the national shortage, and 665 of its 827 public schools (80.4%) had a shortage, against 54.2% nationally.
- 515 schools (62.2%) held classes in two or more shifts in SY 2024-25, the highest share of any region (4.3% nationally), and they enroll 1,486,689 learners, 73.2% of the region's.
- The median NCR school has 51.5 learners per classroom in elementary and 52.8 in junior high, against 24.9 and 32.1 nationally.
- Quezon City is short 5,507 classrooms, 22.1% of the region's shortage, and its Batasan Hills National HS, short 319, has the largest shortage of any school in the country.
- The SBP 2026 list holds 4,584 classrooms for NCR, but only 775 are funded under the GAA 2026; the other 3,809, 83.1% of the region's list, are PSIP III classrooms, against 50.3% nationally.
- The City of Manila gets 1,890 classrooms, 68.2% of its shortage and the most of any city or municipality in the country, while Quezon City gets 398 (7.2%) and the City of Makati none for a shortage of 269.
- The shortage is broad, not concentrated: 535 schools are short by 10 or more classrooms, and together they hold 97.7% of it.

## NCR against the country

The table sets Metro Manila's main indicators beside the national figures, with the same definition in both columns.

| Indicator                                               |    NCR |   Philippines |
|:--------------------------------------------------------|-------:|--------------:|
| Schools in the 2023 shortage data                       |    827 |        47,659 |
| Schools with a classroom shortage                       |  80.4% |         54.2% |
| Classroom shortage (2023)                               | 24,866 |       165,443 |
| Shortage per 1,000 learners                             |   12.2 |           7.4 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms                                     |  4,584 |        32,419 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of the shortage          |  18.4% |         19.6% |
| Schools with a shortage that get any SBP 2026 classroom |  23.0% |         13.3% |
| Schools with two or more shifts (SY 2024-25)            |  62.2% |          4.3% |
| Median learners per classroom, elementary               |   51.5 |          24.9 |
| Last Mile Schools                                       |   0.0% |         18.5% |
| Schools using makeshift rooms (2023)                    |  11.5% |         29.0% |
| Schools with a building for condemnation or demolition  |  16.1% |         28.9% |

Two rows stand far from the national column: schools on shifts, 62.2% against 4.3%, and elementary learners per classroom, 51.5 against 24.9. NCR also has a larger share of schools with a shortage than any region except BARMM. The facilities rows run the other way. Metro Manila schools are less likely than schools elsewhere to use makeshift rooms (11.5% against 29.0%) or to have a building for condemnation (16.1% against 28.9%), and the region has no Last Mile Schools. On these figures, NCR's gap is in the number of rooms for its learners more than in the state of the rooms it has.

Kindergarten to Grade 10 accounts for 23,469 classrooms of the shortage and senior high school for 1,396 (5.6%). The urban-rural comparison used for other regions does not apply here: 815 of NCR's 827 schools are flagged urban, none rural, and the rest carry no flag. The urban schools are short 12.1 classrooms per 1,000 learners and hold 96.5% of the shortage. Spare rooms are few: 146 schools report more Kindergarten to Grade 10 classrooms than they need, 1,640 in all, and one school's extra rooms do not reduce another school's shortage.

## Classroom shortage by division in NCR

NCR has 16 schools divisions, one for each city, with Pateros joined to Taguig in the Taguig City and Pateros division. The chart ranks them by the shortage per 1,000 learners, which allows for their very different sizes, from 11,585 learners in the City of San Juan to 420,619 in Quezon City.

![Horizontal bar chart of the 2023 classroom shortage per 1,000 learners in NCR's 16 divisions. Las Piñas City is highest at 16.3 (1,469 classrooms) and Malabon City next at 16.1 (1,105), followed by Caloocan City at 14.4 (3,807) and Navotas at 14.3 (662); Quezon City, with the largest count, 5,507, is at 13.1, and only Pasig City (6.7), City of San Juan (6.1) and Mandaluyong City (5.7) fall below the national line at 7.4, with the regional line at 12.2.](https://nash.com.ph/blog/_astro/classroom-shortage-ncr-divisions.BwPlTOWJ_ZlryGn.webp)

*Figure 1. Classroom shortage per 1,000 learners by division, NCR, 2023 shortage and SY 2024-25 learners. Chart: © 2026 Mark Anthony Llego, NASH Reviewer. [Download the full-resolution chart (PNG)](https://nash.com.ph/blog/charts/deped-data/classroom-shortage-ncr-divisions.png).*

Thirteen of the 16 divisions are above the national rate, and the regional line itself sits far to the right of it. Las Piñas City (16.3) and Malabon City (16.1) are among the 10 highest rates of any division in the country with at least 20,000 learners, and the northern cities of Caloocan and Navotas follow at 14.4 and 14.3. Only Pasig City, the City of San Juan and Mandaluyong City are below 7.4.

By count, Quezon City is short 5,507 classrooms, 22.1% of the region's shortage and the second largest of any division in the country, after Rizal. Caloocan City adds 3,807, Manila 2,773 and Taguig City and Pateros 2,651; these four divisions hold more than half of NCR's shortage between them.

| Division                |   Schools |   Learners (SY 2024-25) |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   Shortage per 1,000 learners |   Schools with a shortage |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:------------------------|----------:|------------------------:|----------------------------:|------------------------------:|--------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| Las Piñas City          |        39 |                  90,254 |                       1,469 |                          16.3 |                     94.9% |                    80 |       5.4% |
| Malabon City            |        42 |                  68,507 |                       1,105 |                          16.1 |                     90.5% |                   256 |      23.2% |
| Caloocan City           |        89 |                 264,993 |                       3,807 |                          14.4 |                     84.3% |                   367 |       9.6% |
| Navotas                 |        25 |                  46,219 |                         662 |                          14.3 |                     92.0% |                   224 |      33.8% |
| Taguig City and Pateros |        62 |                 194,931 |                       2,651 |                          13.6 |                     82.3% |                   180 |       6.8% |
| Quezon City             |       158 |                 420,619 |                       5,507 |                          13.1 |                     74.1% |                   398 |       7.2% |
| Paranaque City          |        43 |                 100,923 |                       1,291 |                          12.8 |                     86.0% |                   124 |       9.6% |
| Valenzuela City         |        71 |                 130,349 |                       1,667 |                          12.8 |                     80.3% |                   144 |       8.6% |
| Marikina City           |        33 |                  76,216 |                         842 |                          11.0 |                     84.8% |                   213 |      25.3% |
| Manila                  |       105 |                 252,862 |                       2,773 |                          11.0 |                     79.0% |                 1,890 |      68.2% |
| Pasay City              |        29 |                  63,982 |                         650 |                          10.2 |                     75.9% |                    27 |       4.2% |
| Muntinlupa City         |        27 |                  82,999 |                         843 |                          10.2 |                     85.2% |                   179 |      21.2% |
| Makati City             |        23 |                  30,632 |                         269 |                           8.6 |                     87.0% |                     0 |       0.0% |
| Pasig City              |        44 |                 142,463 |                         958 |                           6.7 |                     68.2% |                   136 |      14.2% |
| City of San Juan        |        13 |                  11,585 |                          71 |                           6.1 |                     46.2% |                   116 |     163.4% |
| Mandaluyong City        |        24 |                  52,542 |                         299 |                           5.7 |                     75.0% |                   238 |      79.5% |

In Las Piñas City 94.9% of schools have a shortage; in the City of San Juan 46.2% do, the only division where fewer than half do. Coverage, the division's SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of its 2023 shortage, runs from 0.0% in Makati City, which has no line on the list, to 163.4% in the City of San Juan. Manila (68.2%) and Mandaluyong City (79.5%) sit far above the rest, while Pasay City (4.2%), Las Piñas City (5.4%), Taguig City and Pateros (6.8%) and Quezon City (7.2%) get the least relative to their shortage. The division totals leave out 12 SBP classrooms at one new school in Taguig that has no division in the data; the regional totals include them.

## Cities of Metro Manila and Pateros

Metro Manila has no provinces in the Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC): each of its 16 cities and the municipality of Pateros is a unit of its own, so the table below is at once the province-level and the city-level view. It follows the PSGC and the SBP masterlist's own municipality, which is why a few figures differ slightly from the divisions. One school of the Manila division is placed in the City of Marikina, so the City of Manila is short 2,771 classrooms against the division's 2,773. The City of Taguig and Pateros appear separately here, and the City of Taguig's 164 SBP classrooms include the 12 at the new school with no division.

| Province or city    |   Cities and municipalities |   Schools |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   Shortage per 1,000 learners |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:--------------------|----------------------------:|----------:|----------------------------:|------------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| Quezon City         |                           1 |       158 |                       5,507 |                          13.1 |                   398 |       7.2% |
| City of Caloocan    |                           1 |        89 |                       3,807 |                          14.4 |                   367 |       9.6% |
| City of Manila      |                           1 |       104 |                       2,771 |                          11.0 |                 1,890 |      68.2% |
| City of Taguig      |                           1 |        52 |                       2,604 |                          13.9 |                   164 |       6.3% |
| City of Valenzuela  |                           1 |        71 |                       1,667 |                          12.8 |                   144 |       8.6% |
| City of Las Piñas   |                           1 |        39 |                       1,469 |                          16.3 |                    80 |       5.4% |
| City of Parañaque   |                           1 |        43 |                       1,291 |                          12.8 |                   124 |       9.6% |
| City of Malabon     |                           1 |        42 |                       1,105 |                          16.1 |                   256 |      23.2% |
| City of Pasig       |                           1 |        44 |                         958 |                           6.7 |                   136 |      14.2% |
| City of Marikina    |                           1 |        34 |                         844 |                          10.9 |                   213 |      25.2% |
| City of Muntinlupa  |                           1 |        27 |                         843 |                          10.2 |                   179 |      21.2% |
| City of Navotas     |                           1 |        25 |                         662 |                          14.3 |                   224 |      33.8% |
| Pasay City          |                           1 |        29 |                         650 |                          10.2 |                    27 |       4.2% |
| City of Mandaluyong |                           1 |        24 |                         299 |                           5.7 |                   238 |      79.5% |
| City of Makati      |                           1 |        23 |                         269 |                           8.6 |                     0 |       0.0% |
| City of San Juan    |                           1 |        13 |                          71 |                           6.1 |                   116 |     163.4% |
| Pateros             |                           1 |        10 |                          47 |                           5.8 |                    28 |      59.6% |

Quezon City has the largest shortage of any city, 5,507 classrooms, and receives 398 SBP classrooms, 7.2% of it. The City of Manila receives 1,890, the most of any city or municipality in the country, for a shortage of 2,771. The 10 cities with the largest shortages are all first-class cities.

Two cities sit at the edges. The City of Makati is the only one with a shortage and no SBP 2026 classroom: it is short 269, and of the five cities and municipalities in the country with the largest shortages and no allocation, it is the only one outside BARMM. The City of San Juan is the only one that receives more than its shortage, 45 classrooms beyond it. Pateros, the region's one municipality, is short 47 and receives 28.

## Schools with the largest classroom shortages in NCR

The 10 schools with the largest shortages in Metro Manila are each short 170 classrooms or more, nine of them hold classes in shifts, and four are in Quezon City. Together they lack 2,039 classrooms, 8.2% of the region's shortage. Each can be looked up by its school ID in the school table.

|   School ID | School                                   | Division                | City or municipality   |   Learners (SY 2024-25) |   Learners per classroom |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   SBP 2026 classrooms | Two or more shifts   |
|------------:|:-----------------------------------------|:------------------------|:-----------------------|------------------------:|-------------------------:|----------------------------:|----------------------:|:---------------------|
|      305330 | Batasan Hills National HS                | Quezon City             | Quezon City            |                  15,209 |                    118.8 |                         319 |                    20 | Yes                  |
|      500340 | Kapitan Eddie T. Reyes Integrated School | Taguig City and Pateros | City of Taguig         |                  10,696 |                    159.6 |                         223 |                    20 | Yes                  |
|      305424 | Paranaque National High School Main      | Paranaque City          | City of Parañaque      |                  17,064 |                     74.5 |                         208 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      136541 | Commonwealth ES                          | Quezon City             | Quezon City            |                   6,899 |                     66.3 |                         208 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      136773 | CAA Elementary School Main               | Las Piñas City          | City of Las Piñas      |                  10,132 |                     89.7 |                         198 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      136539 | Bagong Silangan Elementary School        | Quezon City             | Quezon City            |                   9,076 |                    127.8 |                         193 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      136718 | Nagpayong Elementary School              | Pasig City              | City of Pasig          |                  11,689 |                     76.4 |                         175 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      136441 | R. Almario Elementary School             | Manila                  | City of Manila         |                   6,283 |                     27.2 |                         175 |                     0 | No                   |
|      305337 | Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma High School  | Quezon City             | Quezon City            |                   8,852 |                    116.5 |                         170 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      136891 | Tenement Elementary School               | Taguig City and Pateros | City of Taguig         |                   8,468 |                    103.3 |                         170 |                    12 | Yes                  |

Batasan Hills National HS in Quezon City is short 319 classrooms for 15,209 learners, the largest shortage of any school in the country. Crowding at several of these schools is extreme: Kapitan Eddie T. Reyes Integrated School in Taguig has 159.6 learners per classroom and Bagong Silangan Elementary School 127.8. R. Almario Elementary School in Manila is the exception, with no shifts and 27.2 learners per classroom in SY 2024-25 against a 2023 shortage of 175, a reminder that the two figures come from different years and sources.

Three of the 10 are on the SBP 2026 list: Batasan Hills National HS and Kapitan Eddie T. Reyes Integrated School with 20 classrooms each, and Tenement Elementary School with 12. Tenement shares its shortage of 170 with Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma High School and with Pres. Corazon C. Aquino E/S, which falls just outside the 10; ties are broken by enrollment.

Unlike the country, where a small group of schools holds most of the shortage, NCR's is spread wide. The 83 schools with the largest shortages, the top 10% of the region's schools, hold 38.9% of it, against 66.0% nationally, and it takes 125 schools (15.1%) to reach half of it, against 4.7% of schools nationally. 535 schools are short by 10 or more classrooms. For the method behind these shares, see [Philippine Classroom Shortage 2023: Where the Gap Is](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-philippines-2023).

## SBP 2026 classrooms in NCR

The SBP 2026 list has 205 lines for NCR, 4,584 classrooms at 178 schools, 14.1% of the national list against the region's 15.0% of the shortage. Only 775 of these classrooms are funded under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2026, with PHP 4.04 billion. The other 3,809 are PSIP III classrooms, under the third Public-Private Partnership for School Infrastructure Project, which is still for bidding, with construction expected from March 2027 to July 2028; they have no budget on the list yet. Figure 2 pairs each division's 2023 shortage with its 2026 classrooms.

![Paired horizontal bars of the 2023 classroom shortage and SBP 2026 classrooms in NCR's 16 divisions. Quezon City has 5,507 classrooms of shortage and 398 on the list, Caloocan City 3,807 and 367, Manila 2,773 and 1,890, and Taguig City and Pateros 2,651 and 180; Makati City has 269 and none, and the City of San Juan is the only division with more on the list than its shortage, 116 against 71.](https://nash.com.ph/blog/_astro/classroom-shortage-ncr-sbp-2026.ReIPao2P_Z1hMgkS.webp)

*Figure 2. 2023 classroom shortage and SBP 2026 classrooms by division, NCR. Chart: © 2026 Mark Anthony Llego, NASH Reviewer. [Download the full-resolution chart (PNG)](https://nash.com.ph/blog/charts/deped-data/classroom-shortage-ncr-sbp-2026.png).*

Manila is the exception among the large divisions: its orange bar reaches about two-thirds of its blue one. In Quezon City, Caloocan City, Taguig City and Pateros, Valenzuela City and Las Piñas City, the list is a small fraction of the shortage, and Makati City has no orange bar at all.

| Modality group   |   Lines |   Schools |   Classrooms |   Share of the region's SBP classrooms |
|:-----------------|--------:|----------:|-------------:|---------------------------------------:|
| DPWH             |      25 |        25 |          304 |                                   6.6% |
| LGU              |      38 |        38 |          471 |                                  10.3% |
| PSIP III (PPP)   |     142 |       125 |        3,809 |                                  83.1% |

NCR has no DepEd-implemented line on the list, so that row is left out. PSIP III carries the region's list: 3,809 classrooms on 142 lines, 83.1% of its SBP classrooms, against half of the national list (16,305 classrooms). The largest single line in the country, 160 classrooms at F.G CALDERON INTEGRATED SCHOOL in the City of Manila, is one of them. Local governments implement 471 classrooms (10.3%) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 304 (6.6%). The modalities and their budgets are described in [DepEd School Building Program 2026 in Numbers](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-building-program-2026).

School by school, the list fits NCR's need better than it fits the country's. 2,790 of the region's 2026 classrooms (60.9%) fall within the receiving school's own 2023 shortage, against 53.0% nationally, and only 440 (9.6%) go to schools with no 2023 shortage. 153 of the 665 schools with a shortage (23.0%) receive at least one classroom, against 13.3% nationally, as do 135 of the 520 schools short by more than 10 (26.0%). The shortage is so large, though, that counted this way the list meets 11.2% of it and leaves 22,075 classrooms unmet. [Do 2026 Classrooms Go Where the Shortage Is?](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-allocation-vs-shortage-2026) explains why a classroom beyond a school's own shortage meets no other school's need.

## Class shifts and crowded classrooms in NCR

In SY 2024-25, 515 of the region's 828 schools in the enrollment data (62.2%) held classes in two or more shifts, the highest share of any region; none ran three. Metro Manila alone holds about a quarter of the 2,041 schools on shifts in the country. The shifting schools enroll 1,486,689 learners, 73.2% of the region's total, so most Metro Manila learners attend a school that splits its day. Of the 514 shifting schools in the shortage data, 95.7% had a 2023 shortage, and 122 of them (23.7%) receive SBP 2026 classrooms.

Learners per classroom, which counts all of a school's learners whatever their shift, shows the load behind those shifts. The median school has 51.5 learners per classroom in elementary, 52.8 in junior high and 40.4 in senior high, against 24.9, 32.1 and 30.6 nationally. 419 schools have more than 50 learners per classroom, with 66.5% of the learners counted, and bringing each down to 50 would take at least 9,259 classrooms, about a quarter of the 36,387 the country would need on the same measure. [Class Shifts and Crowded Classrooms in DepEd Schools](https://nash.com.ph/blog/class-shifting-crowded-classrooms) explains the measure. At the national level, EDCOM II estimated in October 2026 that 52,871 classrooms are needed to end double and triple shifting in 1,889 schools (EDCOM II, 2026).

The 2023 facilities data show fewer signs of makeshift or failing rooms than elsewhere: 95 schools (11.5%) use makeshift rooms, against 29.0% nationally, and 133 (16.1%) report a building for condemnation or demolition, 210 buildings in all. NCR has no Last Mile Schools, the only region with none, and no line under DepEd's Last Mile School modality.

## What this means for school heads in NCR

In Metro Manila the shortage shows up as shifts and full rooms, so the most useful figures for a school head are often the SY 2024-25 counts, not only the 2023 shortage.

- **Lead with shifts and learners per classroom.** With 62.2% of the region's schools on shifts, a school's shift count and learners per classroom describe its situation better than a shortage figure alone; cite both with their years in the [school improvement plan](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-improvement-plan) and track any SBP lines in the annual implementation plan.
- **Know which kind of line your school has.** A GAA-funded line has a budget for 2026; a PSIP III line, as at 125 of the region's schools, is still for bidding, with construction expected from March 2027 to July 2028. Plan the school's rooms and shifts on that timeline.
- **Compare within your own city.** Coverage runs from 0.0% in Makati City to 68.2% in Manila and 163.4% in the City of San Juan, so a school in Quezon City (7.2%) or Pasay City (4.2%) has a different case to make from one in Mandaluyong City.
- **Take the gap to the city government as well as the division.** All 10 cities with the largest shortages are first-class cities, yet local governments implement only 471 of the region's 2026 classrooms; in Makati, which has a shortage of 269 and no line, the city is the obvious partner.
- **Check the record before you cite it.** A school with 27.2 learners per classroom and a 2023 shortage of 175, as R. Almario Elementary School shows, may have a record worth confirming with the division before the data are used for planning.

## How these numbers were made

The data are the cleaned tables behind the EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard: DepEd's 2023 classroom shortage by school, the SBP 2026 masterlist, SY 2024-25 enrollment and class shifts from the Basic Education Information System (BEIS), 2023 school facilities, and school coordinates from the National School Building Inventory (NSBI) for SY 2022-23. [How the EDCOM Classroom Data Was Cleaned](https://nash.com.ph/blog/edcom-classroom-data-cleaned) documents every table and cleaning rule.

A school's shortage is DepEd's 2023 figure for Kindergarten to Grade 10 plus senior high school, counted only where the school lacks classrooms. The shortage per 1,000 learners divides the shortage of schools with SY 2024-25 learners by those learners and multiplies by 1,000. Learners per classroom divide SY 2024-25 learners by 2023 instructional classrooms. A school holds classes in two or more shifts when any of its levels reports a second or third shift in SY 2024-25. A division's coverage is its SBP 2026 classrooms divided by its 2023 shortage. Classrooms within a school's shortage are counted up to the size of that shortage, and any beyond it are counted as beyond. Regions follow the PSGC; NCR has no provinces, so each city and Pateros stands as its own province-level unit. Divisions are DepEd's schools divisions, with Taguig and Pateros in one.

The analysis was done in Python with pandas, and the charts drawn with Matplotlib.

## Limits

The sources span several years: the shortage and facilities are from 2023, enrollment and shifts from SY 2024-25, and the allocations from 2026, so a school's figures may have changed since. Learners per classroom count all of a school's learners against its rooms, so in a school on shifts it describes the load over the day, not the size of one session. The SBP list shows planned classrooms, not finished ones, and most of NCR's are PSIP III classrooms still for bidding. The shortage is DepEd's own estimate, and new, merged or renumbered schools may be missing or counted under a new ID. Division totals of SBP classrooms leave out the one school with no division in the data. These are descriptive figures: they show where the shortage and the 2026 classrooms are, not why.

## Frequently asked questions

### How big is the classroom shortage in Metro Manila?

DepEd's 2023 data put the classroom shortage in NCR, or Metro Manila, at 24,866 classrooms, 15.0% of the national shortage of 165,443 and the second largest of any region. That is 12.2 classrooms per 1,000 learners, against 7.4 nationally, and 80.4% of the region's public schools have a shortage.

### Which city in Metro Manila has the biggest classroom shortage?

By count, Quezon City, short 5,507 classrooms, 22.1% of the region's shortage; Caloocan comes next with 3,807. By rate, the Las Piñas City division is short 16.3 classrooms per 1,000 learners and Malabon City 16.1, the highest in the region.

### How many classrooms will NCR get under the SBP 2026?

The SBP 2026 masterlist has 4,584 classrooms for NCR on 205 lines at 178 schools, 18.4% of the region's 2023 shortage, against 19.6% nationally. Only 775 are funded under the GAA 2026, with PHP 4.04 billion; the other 3,809 are PSIP III classrooms still for bidding. The list is a plan; it does not mean the classrooms are built.

### How many Metro Manila schools hold classes in shifts?

In SY 2024-25, 515 of NCR's 828 schools in the enrollment data, 62.2%, held classes in two or more shifts, against 4.3% nationally; none held three. These schools enroll 1,486,689 learners, 73.2% of the region's total.

## Download the data and cite this post

The cleaned EDCOM II classroom data behind this series are free to download for personal study; to reuse them, email [support@nash.com.ph](mailto:support@nash.com.ph) for written permission first. [How the EDCOM Classroom Data Was Cleaned](https://nash.com.ph/blog/edcom-classroom-data-cleaned) explains every table and cleaning rule. The files are at data.nash.com.ph: start with the [README](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/README.md), then the [school table](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/schools.parquet) (Parquet, or [CSV](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/schools.csv.gz)), the [School Building Program lines](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/sbp_projects.csv.gz) (CSV), the [city and municipality table](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/lgu_summary.csv.gz) (CSV), and every table for [Stata](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/classroom_tables_stata.zip) and [SPSS](https://data.nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data/v1.1/classroom_tables_spss.zip). Every regional figure in this report can be computed from the school table, filtered to NCR by `deped_region`.

Every file, with its rows, columns and checksum, is listed on the [EDCOM II classroom data page](https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data). To cite the data: Llego, M. A. (2026). *EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard data, cleaned, version 1.1*. NASH Reviewer. https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data

To cite this post: Llego, M. A. (2026, October 28). *Classroom shortage in NCR, 2023–2026: Shifts and crowding*. NASH Reviewer Blog. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-ncr

## References

- Llego, M. A. (2026). *EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard data, cleaned, version 1.1* [Data set]. NASH Reviewer. https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data
- Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II). (2026, October 20). *Put classrooms where they're needed most, EDCOM 2 tells DepEd* [News release]. https://edcom2.gov.ph/put-classrooms-where-theyre-needed-most-edcom-2-tells-deped/

## More in this series

- [How the EDCOM Classroom Data Was Cleaned](https://nash.com.ph/blog/edcom-classroom-data-cleaned)
- [Philippine Classroom Shortage 2023: Where the Gap Is](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-philippines-2023)
- [DepEd School Building Program 2026 in Numbers](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-building-program-2026)
- [Do 2026 Classrooms Go Where the Shortage Is?](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-allocation-vs-shortage-2026)
- [Classroom Allocation by LGU Income Class, 2026](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-allocation-lgu-income-class)
- [Class Shifts and Crowded Classrooms in DepEd Schools](https://nash.com.ph/blog/class-shifting-crowded-classrooms)
- [Last Mile Schools: Classroom Need and 2026 Allocation](https://nash.com.ph/blog/last-mile-schools-classroom-shortage)
- Regional reports: [NCR](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-ncr), [CAR](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-car), [Region I](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-1-ilocos), [Region II](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-2-cagayan-valley), [Region III](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-3-central-luzon), [Region IV-A](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-4a-calabarzon), [MIMAROPA](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-mimaropa), [Region V](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-5-bicol), [Region VI](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-6-western-visayas), [NIR](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-negros-island-region), [Region VII](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-7-central-visayas), [Region VIII](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-visayas), [Region IX](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-9-zamboanga-peninsula), [Region X](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-10-northern-mindanao), [Region XI](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-11-davao), [Region XII](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-12-soccsksargen), [Caraga](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga), [BARMM](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-barmm)
- Rankings and deep dives: [Congressional districts](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-by-congressional-district), [Top 20 cities and municipalities](https://nash.com.ph/blog/cities-municipalities-largest-classroom-shortage), [Rizal](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-rizal), [Quezon City](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-quezon-city), [City of Manila](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-manila), [Tawi-Tawi](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-tawi-tawi), [Cavite](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-cavite), [Cost of a classroom](https://nash.com.ph/blog/cost-to-build-classroom-philippines)
- Explainers: [PSIP III](https://nash.com.ph/blog/psip-iii-classrooms-explained), [Senior high shortage](https://nash.com.ph/blog/senior-high-school-classroom-shortage), [Junior high shortage](https://nash.com.ph/blog/junior-high-school-classroom-shortage), [Excess classrooms](https://nash.com.ph/blog/schools-with-more-classrooms-than-needed), [Learning Continuity Spaces](https://nash.com.ph/blog/learning-continuity-spaces-sbp-2026), [How learners reach school](https://nash.com.ph/blog/how-learners-reach-public-high-schools)
- For teachers and school heads: [Action research and thesis topics](https://nash.com.ph/blog/action-research-topics-classroom-shortage)
- Related: [CRLA Results SY 2025-26 in NCR: Low Shares, Large Schools](https://nash.com.ph/blog/crla-results-sy-2025-2026-ncr), [DepEd Classroom and School Building Data, SY 2023-2024](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-classroom-school-building-data-sy-2023-2024), [DepEd School Improvement Plan (SIP): Steps, AIP and SRC](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-improvement-plan)

*Analysis and charts by Mark Anthony Llego for NASH Reviewer. Data: EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard and Department of Education data. NASH Reviewer is not affiliated with EDCOM II or DepEd. Charts may be reused only with written permission from support@nash.com.ph.*

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© 2026 Mark Anthony Llego, NASH Reviewer. All rights reserved. You may quote up to 100 words from this article with the author's name, its title and a link. In research, cite it as: Llego, M. A. (2026, October 28). *Classroom Shortage in NCR, 2023–2026: Shifts and Crowding*. NASH Reviewer. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-ncr. Any other reuse of the article, its charts or its data needs written permission: email support@nash.com.ph. Terms of Service: https://nash.com.ph/terms#website-content-and-data