# Classroom Shortage in Caraga, 2023–2026: Dinagat Islands

Caraga lacked 4,410 classrooms in 2023. Dinagat Island, short 22.2 per 1,000 learners, has the second-highest division rate in the country.

This is the Markdown copy of [Classroom Shortage in Caraga, 2023–2026: Dinagat Islands](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga), 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.

Caraga (Region XIII, often searched as Region 13, and labeled CARAGA in DepEd's data) lacked 4,410 classrooms in 2023, according to DepEd's classroom shortage data as published in the EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard. That is 2.7% of the country's shortage of 165,443 classrooms, 14th of the 18 regions by size. Measured against learners, the region is short 6.4 classrooms for every 1,000 learners enrolled in SY 2024-25, below the national rate of 7.4 and 10th among the regions.

A rate below the country's does not mean the region is well supplied. Dinagat Island, the schools division of the island province of Dinagat Islands, is short 22.2 classrooms per 1,000 learners, more than three times the regional rate and second only to Tawi-Tawi among the 209 divisions in the country with at least 20,000 learners. Remoteness runs through the rest of the figures: 29.9% of CARAGA's schools are Last Mile Schools, against 18.5% nationally, and they hold 25.9% of its shortage. The School Building Program (SBP) 2026 lists 542 classrooms for the region, 12.3% of its shortage against 19.6% nationally, and local governments implement 68.1% of them.

The figures below, from the cleaned school-level data behind the dashboard, cover CARAGA from Butuan City to Siargao and Dinagat. Every file is listed on the [EDCOM II classroom data page](https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data).

## Key findings

- CARAGA lacked 4,410 classrooms in 2023, 6.4 per 1,000 learners against 7.4 nationally, yet 1,219 of its 2,096 public schools (58.2%) had a shortage, more than the national 54.2%.
- Dinagat Island is short 22.2 classrooms per 1,000 learners, the highest of the region's 12 divisions, and its 33 SBP 2026 classrooms cover 5.3% of its shortage, the lowest coverage in the region.
- Rural schools are short 7.2 classrooms per 1,000 learners against 5.2 in urban schools, the reverse of the national pattern, and they hold 67.3% of the region's shortage.
- 627 schools (29.9%) are Last Mile Schools, the third-highest share of any region, and 63.3% of them have a shortage, against 56.0% of the region's other schools.
- The SBP 2026 list holds 542 classrooms for CARAGA, 12.3% of its shortage, and only 96 of its 1,219 schools with a shortage (7.9%) get any classroom.
- LGU-implemented lines account for 68.1% of the region's 2026 classrooms, against 26.7% of the national list, and CARAGA has no PSIP III line.
- Agusan National High School in Butuan City, with the region's largest shortage of 66 classrooms, is listed for 64, and five of the 10 schools with the largest shortages are on the list.

## CARAGA against the country

The table puts the region's main indicators beside the country's, each row with the same definition in both columns.

| Indicator                                               |   CARAGA |   Philippines |
|:--------------------------------------------------------|---------:|--------------:|
| Schools in the 2023 shortage data                       |    2,096 |        47,659 |
| Schools with a classroom shortage                       |    58.2% |         54.2% |
| Classroom shortage (2023)                               |    4,410 |       165,443 |
| Shortage per 1,000 learners                             |      6.4 |           7.4 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms                                     |      542 |        32,419 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of the shortage          |    12.3% |         19.6% |
| Schools with a shortage that get any SBP 2026 classroom |     7.9% |         13.3% |
| Schools with two or more shifts (SY 2024-25)            |     1.8% |          4.3% |
| Median learners per classroom, elementary               |     24.8 |          24.9 |
| Last Mile Schools                                       |    29.9% |         18.5% |
| Schools using makeshift rooms (2023)                    |    33.2% |         29.0% |
| Schools with a building for condemnation or demolition  |    29.7% |         28.9% |

CARAGA departs most from the country on Last Mile Schools, 29.9% of its schools against 18.5%, and on the 2026 list: its classrooms equal 12.3% of its shortage, and 7.9% of its schools with a shortage get any, against 19.6% and 13.3% nationally. Shifts are less than half as common as in the country, 1.8% of schools against 4.3%, and elementary classrooms are about as full as the national median.

Kindergarten to Grade 10 accounts for 3,978 classrooms of the shortage and senior high school for 432 (9.8%). The urban-rural split runs the other way from the country's. Nationally, urban schools are short more classrooms per learner, 8.4 against 6.1 per 1,000; in CARAGA rural schools are, 7.2 against 5.2, and the 1,727 rural schools carry 67.3% of the shortage against 32.6% for the 362 urban ones. Some schools have rooms to spare: 661 report more Kindergarten to Grade 10 classrooms than they need, 1,739 in all, but a spare room at one school does not reduce the shortage at another.

## Classroom shortage by division in CARAGA

CARAGA has 12 schools divisions: five provincial divisions (Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Island), the island division of Siargao, and six city divisions. The chart ranks them by the shortage per 1,000 learners, so that a small division and a large one can be compared.

![Horizontal bar chart of the 2023 classroom shortage per 1,000 learners in CARAGA's 12 divisions. Dinagat Island is far above the rest at 22.2 (624 classrooms), followed by Tandag City at 9.9 (162), Surigao del Sur at 8.3 (1,009) and Surigao City at 7.8 (255), the only four above the national 7.4 line; Butuan City (5.9), Agusan del Sur (5.7) and six others sit below the regional 6.4 line, down to Bislig City at 2.4 (49).](https://nash.com.ph/blog/_astro/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga-divisions.3-kAsbtK_thWEE.webp)

*Figure 1. Classroom shortage per 1,000 learners by division, CARAGA, 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-region-13-caraga-divisions.png).*

Dinagat Island stands alone. Its bar is more than twice as long as the next, Tandag City at 9.9, and its 624 classrooms of shortage fall on only 28,139 learners. Three other divisions are above the national rate: Tandag City, Surigao del Sur (8.3) and Surigao City (7.8). The other eight are below even the regional 6.4, down to Bislig City at 2.4.

By count, the order changes. Surigao del Sur, the provincial division, is short 1,009 classrooms, 22.9% of the region's, and Agusan del Sur 935, but both spread their shortage over many more learners than Dinagat. Butuan City, the largest city division, is short 523 classrooms at a rate of 5.9.

| Division          |   Schools |   Learners (SY 2024-25) |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   Shortage per 1,000 learners |   Schools with a shortage |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:------------------|----------:|------------------------:|----------------------------:|------------------------------:|--------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| Dinagat Island    |       142 |                  28,139 |                         624 |                          22.2 |                     69.7% |                    33 |       5.3% |
| Tandag City       |        31 |                  16,344 |                         162 |                           9.9 |                     80.6% |                    14 |       8.6% |
| Surigao del Sur   |       452 |                 121,736 |                       1,009 |                           8.3 |                     66.4% |                   103 |      10.2% |
| Surigao City      |        87 |                  32,770 |                         255 |                           7.8 |                     72.4% |                    28 |      11.0% |
| Butuan City       |       139 |                  87,533 |                         523 |                           5.9 |                     65.5% |                   118 |      22.6% |
| Agusan del Sur    |       518 |                 162,651 |                         935 |                           5.7 |                     60.4% |                    68 |       7.3% |
| Cabadbaran City   |        35 |                  18,861 |                         107 |                           5.7 |                     48.6% |                    22 |      20.6% |
| Siargao           |       145 |                  33,753 |                         186 |                           5.5 |                     53.1% |                    32 |      17.2% |
| Agusan del Norte  |       206 |                  71,785 |                         257 |                           3.6 |                     43.7% |                    63 |      24.5% |
| Surigao del Norte |       201 |                  63,015 |                         216 |                           3.4 |                     44.8% |                    26 |      12.0% |
| Bayugan City      |        70 |                  26,382 |                          86 |                           3.3 |                     47.1% |                    20 |      23.2% |
| Bislig City       |        70 |                  20,459 |                          49 |                           2.4 |                     30.0% |                    11 |      22.4% |

The share of schools with a shortage runs from 30.0% in Bislig City to 80.6% in Tandag City. Coverage, a division's SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of its shortage, tends to run the opposite way to need: it is lowest in Dinagat Island (5.3%) and Agusan del Sur (7.3%) and highest in Agusan del Norte (24.5%), Bayugan City (23.2%) and Bislig City (22.4%), three of the divisions with the lowest rates. The division totals leave out four SBP classrooms at one school in the City of Tandag that has no division in the data; the regional totals include them.

## Provinces and cities: Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Dinagat Islands, Agusan del Norte and Butuan

The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) places CARAGA's schools in five provinces and one highly urbanized city, Butuan, which stands apart from Agusan del Norte. Component cities are counted inside their province, although each has its own schools division: Surigao del Sur here includes Tandag City and Bislig City, Agusan del Sur includes Bayugan City, Agusan del Norte includes Cabadbaran City, and Surigao del Norte includes Surigao City and the islands of the Siargao division.

| Province or city   |   Cities and municipalities |   Schools |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   Shortage per 1,000 learners |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:-------------------|----------------------------:|----------:|----------------------------:|------------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| Surigao del Sur    |                          19 |       553 |                       1,220 |                           7.7 |                   132 |      10.8% |
| Agusan del Sur     |                          14 |       588 |                       1,022 |                           5.4 |                    88 |       8.6% |
| Surigao del Norte  |                          21 |       433 |                         657 |                           5.1 |                    86 |      13.1% |
| Dinagat Islands    |                           7 |       142 |                         624 |                          22.2 |                    33 |       5.3% |
| City of Butuan     |                           1 |       139 |                         523 |                           5.9 |                   118 |      22.6% |
| Agusan del Norte   |                          11 |       241 |                         364 |                           4.0 |                    85 |      23.4% |

Surigao del Sur, with its two cities, holds the largest part of the shortage, 1,220 classrooms or 27.7% of the region's, and its 2026 classrooms cover 10.8% of it. Dinagat Islands has the fewest schools of the five provinces but by far the highest rate, 22.2, and the lowest coverage, 5.3%. Agusan del Norte and the City of Butuan are the best covered, at 23.4% and 22.6%.

Among the region's 73 cities and municipalities, the City of Butuan has the largest shortage, 523 classrooms. Two of the 10 largest, Basilisa and Cagdianao, are on Dinagat:

| City or municipality   | Province or city   | Income class   |   Schools |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:-----------------------|:-------------------|:---------------|----------:|----------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| City of Butuan         | City of Butuan     | 1st            |       140 |                         523 |                   118 |      22.6% |
| City of Surigao        | Surigao del Norte  | 2nd            |        88 |                         286 |                    28 |       9.8% |
| San Miguel             | Surigao del Sur    | 1st            |        51 |                         164 |                     2 |       1.2% |
| City of Tandag         | Surigao del Sur    | 3rd            |        32 |                         162 |                    18 |      11.1% |
| Basilisa               | Dinagat Islands    | 3rd            |        38 |                         154 |                    12 |       7.8% |
| San Francisco          | Agusan del Sur     | 1st            |        39 |                         140 |                    29 |      20.7% |
| Loreto                 | Agusan del Sur     | 1st            |        58 |                         124 |                    12 |       9.7% |
| Prosperidad            | Agusan del Sur     | 1st            |        53 |                         116 |                     0 |       0.0% |
| Cagdianao              | Dinagat Islands    | 1st            |        24 |                         114 |                     4 |       3.5% |
| Barobo                 | Surigao del Sur    | 1st            |        38 |                         111 |                     7 |       6.3% |

Among the 10, Butuan has the highest coverage, 22.6%, while San Miguel, Surigao del Sur, short 164 classrooms, has two on the list (1.2%) and Prosperidad has none. Prosperidad in Agusan del Sur, short 116, is the largest of the 20 cities and municipalities that have a shortage but no SBP 2026 classroom, 751 classrooms between them. Only one, Remedios T. Romualdez in Agusan del Norte, receives more than its shortage, 14 classrooms beyond it.

The city figures follow the PSGC and the SBP masterlist's own municipality, so they can differ from the division with the same name. The City of Surigao's shortage, 286 classrooms, is larger than the Surigao City division's 255 because it includes Surigao Del Norte National High School, which sits in the city but belongs to the Surigao del Norte division. The City of Tandag has 18 SBP classrooms and the Tandag City division 14; the other four are at the school with no division.

## Schools with the largest classroom shortages in CARAGA

Eight of the 10 schools with the largest shortages are city schools, high schools and central elementary schools alike; the exceptions are Cagdianao National High School on Dinagat and Agusan del Sur National High School in San Francisco. Half of the 10 are on the SBP 2026 list. Together they are short 359 classrooms, 8.1% of the region's shortage.

|   School ID | School                                 | Division          | City or municipality   |   Learners (SY 2024-25) |   Learners per classroom |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   SBP 2026 classrooms | Two or more shifts   |
|------------:|:---------------------------------------|:------------------|:-----------------------|------------------------:|-------------------------:|----------------------------:|----------------------:|:---------------------|
|      304756 | Agusan National High School            | Butuan City       | City of Butuan         |                  10,104 |                     56.4 |                          66 |                    64 | Yes                  |
|      132290 | C.V. Diez Mem. CES                     | Surigao City      | City of Surigao        |                   1,567 |                     34.8 |                          46 |                     0 | No                   |
|      501570 | Doongan Integrated School              | Butuan City       | City of Butuan         |                   1,935 |                     50.3 |                          37 |                     4 | Yes                  |
|      304892 | Jacinto P. Elpa National High School   | Tandag City       | City of Tandag         |                   4,430 |                     50.9 |                          33 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      304815 | Cagdianao National High School         | Dinagat Island    | Cagdianao              |                     987 |                     35.3 |                          32 |                     0 | No                   |
|      304847 | Surigao Del Norte National High School | Surigao del Norte | City of Surigao        |                   6,199 |                     48.8 |                          31 |                     0 | No                   |
|      304707 | Bayugan NCHS                           | Bayugan City      | City of Bayugan        |                   5,818 |                     38.0 |                          29 |                     6 | No                   |
|      304699 | Cabadbaran City National High School   | Cabadbaran City   | City of Cabadbaran     |                   4,465 |                     56.5 |                          29 |                     3 | Yes                  |
|      132979 | Tandag Pilot Elementary School         | Tandag City       | City of Tandag         |                   1,804 |                     75.2 |                          29 |                     0 | No                   |
|      304703 | Agusan del Sur National High School    | Agusan del Sur    | San Francisco          |                   7,099 |                     42.5 |                          27 |                     5 | Yes                  |

Agusan National High School in Butuan City has the region's largest shortage, 66 classrooms, for 10,104 learners, and the SBP 2026 list gives it 64, close to the whole of it. Four others among the 10 are on the list with three to six classrooms each: Doongan Integrated School, Bayugan NCHS, Cabadbaran City National High School and Agusan del Sur National High School. The second-largest shortage, 46 classrooms at C.V. Diez Mem. CES in Surigao City, has none. Agusan del Sur National High School shares 10th place with North Cabadbaran CES, also short 27 classrooms; ties are broken by enrollment.

Across all schools, the shortage is less concentrated than in the country. The 210 schools with the largest shortages, the top 10% of the region's schools, hold 51.2% of it, against 66.0% nationally, and half of it sits in 200 schools (9.5%). The 76 schools short by 10 or more classrooms hold 30.8%, and among schools with a shortage the median is 2.0 classrooms. [Philippine Classroom Shortage 2023: Where the Gap Is](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-philippines-2023) explains these measures.

## SBP 2026 classrooms in CARAGA

The SBP 2026 list has 172 lines for CARAGA, 542 classrooms at 167 schools, 1.7% of the national list for a region with 2.7% of the national shortage. All of them are funded under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2026, with PHP 1.72 billion. The chart sets each division's 2023 shortage beside its 2026 classrooms.

![Paired horizontal bars of the 2023 classroom shortage and SBP 2026 classrooms in CARAGA's 12 divisions. Surigao del Sur has 1,009 classrooms of shortage and 103 on the list, Agusan del Sur 935 and 68, Dinagat Island 624 and 33, Butuan City 523 and 118, and Agusan del Norte 257 and 63; every division's list is shorter than its shortage.](https://nash.com.ph/blog/_astro/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga-sbp-2026.NJE5X_0M_ZSovHU.webp)

*Figure 2. 2023 classroom shortage and SBP 2026 classrooms by division, CARAGA. Chart: © 2026 Mark Anthony Llego, NASH Reviewer. [Download the full-resolution chart (PNG)](https://nash.com.ph/blog/charts/deped-data/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga-sbp-2026.png).*

Butuan City has the most classrooms on the list, 118 against a shortage of 523, while Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur, with larger shortages, have 103 and 68. Dinagat Island has one of the longest blue bars and one of the shortest orange ones, 624 classrooms short and 33 on the list.

| Modality group   |   Lines |   Schools |   Classrooms |   Share of the region's SBP classrooms |
|:-----------------|--------:|----------:|-------------:|---------------------------------------:|
| DPWH             |      31 |        31 |          113 |                                  20.8% |
| LGU              |      98 |        97 |          369 |                                  68.1% |
| DepEd            |      43 |        43 |           60 |                                  11.1% |
| PSIP III (PPP)   |       0 |         0 |            0 |                                   0.0% |

Local governments implement most of the region's 2026 classrooms, 369 or 68.1%, against 26.7% of the national list. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has 113 and DepEd 60. CARAGA has no PSIP III line, while nationally half of the list, 16,305 classrooms, is PSIP III. [DepEd School Building Program 2026 in Numbers](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-building-program-2026) explains the modalities and their budgets.

Measured against each receiving school's own 2023 shortage, 290 of the region's 2026 classrooms (53.5%) fall within it, close to the national 53.0%. But 162 (29.9%) go to 66 schools that reported no shortage in 2023, against 23.0% nationally. Of the 1,219 schools with a shortage, 96 receive any classroom (7.9%), and of the 71 schools short by more than 10, 17 do (23.9%). Counted this way, the list meets 6.6% of the region's shortage and leaves 4,120 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 one school's shortage does not reduce another school's.

## Class shifts and crowded classrooms in CARAGA

Shifts are uncommon in CARAGA. In SY 2024-25, 38 of the region's 2,104 schools in the enrollment data (1.8%) held classes in two or more shifts, one of them in three, against 4.3% nationally. They enroll 57,506 learners, 8.4% of the region's total, and five of the 10 schools with the largest shortages are among them. Of the 38, 76.3% had a 2023 shortage, and six (15.8%) receive SBP 2026 classrooms.

High school classrooms are less full than the country's. The median school has 24.8 learners per classroom in elementary, 27.5 in junior high and 28.0 in senior high, against 24.9, 32.1 and 30.6 nationally. Still, 148 schools have more than 50 learners per classroom, with 12.5% of the learners counted, and bringing each down to 50 would take at least 440 classrooms. [Class Shifts and Crowded Classrooms in DepEd Schools](https://nash.com.ph/blog/class-shifting-crowded-classrooms) explains the measure.

The 2023 facilities data show more improvised space than in the country: 694 schools (33.2%) use makeshift rooms, against 29.0% nationally, and 621 schools (29.7%) report a building for condemnation or demolition, 1,088 buildings in all, close to the national 28.9%.

## Last Mile Schools in CARAGA

627 of CARAGA's schools (29.9%) are flagged as Last Mile Schools, schools in geographically isolated, disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas and hardship posts. Among the 18 regions, only CAR and NIR have a larger share. These schools hold 1,142 classrooms of shortage, 25.9% of the region's, and they are more likely to have a shortage than the region's other schools: 63.3% against 56.0%, a little above the 61.5% of Last Mile Schools nationally.

The 2026 list reaches them about as often as other schools: 7.5% of the region's Last Mile Schools get any SBP classroom, against 7.8% of its other schools and 9.9% of Last Mile Schools nationally, with 104 classrooms between them. That leaves 370 Last Mile Schools with a shortage, 1,053 classrooms in all, with no 2026 classroom. DepEd's own Last Mile School modality has seven lines with 24 classrooms in the region. [Last Mile Schools: Classroom Need and 2026 Allocation](https://nash.com.ph/blog/last-mile-schools-classroom-shortage) compares them nationally.

## What this means for school heads in CARAGA

The regional rate sits below the country's, which can hide the need in Dinagat and in many remote schools, so start from your own division and school.

- **Use Dinagat's own figures.** A division short 22.2 classrooms per 1,000 learners, with 5.3% of its shortage on the 2026 list, is not described by the regional 6.4. School heads there can cite the division rate and its place among the country's divisions.
- **Cite the Last Mile flag with the shortage.** With 29.9% of the region's schools flagged, and 370 of them short of classrooms with none on the list, a Last Mile School can show both its remoteness and its need, and ask the division about DepEd's Last Mile School modality.
- **Start with the LGU.** Local governments implement 68.1% of CARAGA's 2026 classrooms, so the city or municipal government is a first partner for any building request, beside the division.
- **Find your school in the data.** Look up your school ID in the school table to see your 2023 shortage, learners per classroom and any SBP 2026 lines; the [EDCOM II classroom data page](https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data) links every file.
- **Put the numbers in the SIP and the AIP.** Cite the shortage, enrollment and makeshift rooms with their years and sources in the [school improvement plan](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-improvement-plan), and track any SBP lines in the annual implementation plan.
- **Explain a listing without a shortage.** If your school is on the 2026 list but had no 2023 shortage, as 66 schools in the region are, record the reason, such as new sections or a building for condemnation, so the allocation reads correctly in your plans.

## 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; the national ranking of divisions by this rate covers the 209 divisions with at least 20,000 learners. Learners per classroom divide SY 2024-25 learners by 2023 instructional classrooms. Coverage is SBP 2026 classrooms divided by the 2023 shortage. Classrooms within a school's shortage are counted up to the size of that shortage. Regions, provinces and cities follow the PSGC; divisions are DepEd's schools divisions, named as in DepEd's files (Dinagat Island for the division of Dinagat Islands).

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. The SBP list shows planned classrooms, not finished ones. 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. A small division's rate rests on few learners, so a handful of schools can move it. 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 CARAGA?

DepEd's 2023 data put CARAGA's classroom shortage at 4,410 classrooms, 2.7% of the national shortage of 165,443. That is 6.4 classrooms per 1,000 learners, below the national 7.4, but 58.2% of the region's public schools have a shortage, above the national 54.2%.

### Which division in CARAGA has the biggest classroom shortage?

By rate, Dinagat Island, short 22.2 classrooms per 1,000 learners, more than twice any other division in the region. By count, Surigao del Sur, the provincial division, with 1,009 classrooms, 22.9% of the region's shortage.

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

The SBP 2026 masterlist has 542 classrooms for CARAGA on 172 lines at 167 schools, funded under the GAA 2026 with PHP 1.72 billion. They equal 12.3% of the region's 2023 shortage, against 19.6% nationally, and local governments implement 68.1% of them. The list is a plan; it does not mean the classrooms are built.

### How many Last Mile Schools are in CARAGA?

627, or 29.9% of the region's public schools, against 18.5% nationally; only CAR and NIR have a larger share. They hold 1,142 classrooms of the 2023 shortage, and 370 of those with a shortage have no SBP 2026 classroom.

## 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 CARAGA 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 Caraga, 2023–2026: Dinagat Islands*. NASH Reviewer Blog. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga

## 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

## 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 Caraga: Day Care and School Heads](https://nash.com.ph/blog/crla-results-sy-2025-2026-region-13-caraga), [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), [How to Read DepEd Data: A Guide for Aspiring School Heads](https://nash.com.ph/blog/how-to-read-deped-data)

*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 Caraga, 2023–2026: Dinagat Islands*. NASH Reviewer. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-13-caraga. 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