Region VII (Central Visayas, often searched as Region 7) lacked 10,857 classrooms in 2023, according to DepEd’s classroom shortage data as published in the EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard. That is 6.6% of the country’s shortage of 165,443 classrooms, the fifth largest of the 18 regions. Measured against learners, the region is short 7.8 classrooms for every 1,000 learners enrolled in SY 2024-25, a little above the national rate of 7.4 and the seventh highest among the regions.
The regional figure hides a sharp split. The city divisions in and around Metro Cebu, Talisay City, Toledo City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City, are short 10 or more classrooms per 1,000 learners, while Bohol and Tagbilaran City sit below the national rate. The School Building Program (SBP) 2026 lists 929 classrooms for the region, 8.6% of its shortage, against 19.6% nationally, and none of them are PSIP III public-private partnership classrooms.
The figures below come from the cleaned school-level data behind the dashboard. Every file is listed on the EDCOM II classroom data page.
Key findings
- Region VII lacked 10,857 classrooms in 2023, and 1,613 of its 2,782 public schools (58.0%) had a shortage, against 54.2% nationally.
- Talisay City has the highest shortage rate of the region’s 12 divisions, 14.8 classrooms per 1,000 learners, and Tagbilaran City the lowest, 5.7; seven divisions are above the national rate.
- The shortage is concentrated: 182 schools (6.5% of the region’s schools) hold half of it, and only one of the 10 schools with the largest shortages is on the SBP 2026 list.
- The SBP 2026 list holds 929 classrooms for Region VII, 2.9% of the national list against the region’s 6.6% of the shortage, and only 9.5% of its schools with a shortage get any classroom.
- LGU-implemented lines account for 62.2% of the region’s 2026 classrooms, and the region has no PSIP III line.
- 157 schools (5.6%) held classes in two or more shifts in SY 2024-25, above the national 4.3%, and 97.4% of those in the shortage data had a shortage.
Region VII against the country
The table sets the region’s main indicators beside the national figures. Each row uses the same definition for both columns.
| Indicator | Region VII | Philippines |
|---|---|---|
| Schools in the 2023 shortage data | 2,782 | 47,659 |
| Schools with a classroom shortage | 58.0% | 54.2% |
| Classroom shortage (2023) | 10,857 | 165,443 |
| Shortage per 1,000 learners | 7.8 | 7.4 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms | 929 | 32,419 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of the shortage | 8.6% | 19.6% |
| Schools with a shortage that get any SBP 2026 classroom | 9.5% | 13.3% |
| Schools with two or more shifts (SY 2024-25) | 5.6% | 4.3% |
| Median learners per classroom, elementary | 24.8 | 24.9 |
| Last Mile Schools | 19.2% | 18.5% |
| Schools using makeshift rooms (2023) | 31.7% | 29.0% |
| Schools with a building for condemnation or demolition | 24.9% | 28.9% |
Region VII is close to the country on crowding in elementary classrooms and on Last Mile Schools. It differs most on the 2026 list: its classrooms equal 8.6% of its shortage, less than half the national share of 19.6%.
Most of the shortage is in Kindergarten to Grade 10, 9,147 classrooms; senior high school accounts for 1,710 (15.7%). Urban schools carry 62.8% of the shortage although only 621 of the region’s 2,782 schools are urban, and they are short 9.0 classrooms per 1,000 learners against 6.3 in rural schools. At the same time, 926 schools report more Kindergarten to Grade 10 classrooms than they need, 2,643 in all; one school’s extra rooms do not reduce another school’s shortage.
Classroom shortage by division in Region VII
Region VII has 12 schools divisions: the two large provincial divisions of Cebu and Bohol and 10 city divisions. The chart ranks them by the shortage per 1,000 learners, which allows for their very different sizes.
The highest rates are in the cities around Cebu City. Talisay City (14.8) and Toledo City (14.6) are short nearly twice as many classrooms per learner as the region, and Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, the City of Naga, Carcar City and Danao City are all above the national rate. Seven of the 12 divisions are above it.
By count, the picture changes. Cebu, the provincial division, holds 3,803 classrooms of shortage, 35.0% of the region’s, but its rate (7.0) is below the region’s because it enrolls many more learners. Cebu City is short 1,026 classrooms, yet its rate is among the lowest in the region.
| Division | Schools | Learners (SY 2024-25) | Classroom shortage (2023) | Shortage per 1,000 learners | Schools with a shortage | SBP 2026 classrooms | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talisay City | 44 | 53,713 | 794 | 14.8 | 95.5% | 46 | 5.8% |
| Toledo City | 62 | 50,806 | 741 | 14.6 | 90.3% | 12 | 1.6% |
| Mandaue City | 45 | 64,656 | 687 | 10.6 | 84.4% | 21 | 3.1% |
| Lapu-Lapu City | 71 | 100,852 | 1,034 | 10.3 | 83.1% | 133 | 12.9% |
| City of Naga, Cebu | 55 | 30,683 | 307 | 10.0 | 90.9% | 19 | 6.2% |
| Carcar City | 49 | 33,705 | 325 | 9.6 | 79.6% | 16 | 4.9% |
| Danao City | 61 | 34,985 | 308 | 8.8 | 83.6% | 11 | 3.6% |
| Cebu | 1,120 | 542,751 | 3,803 | 7.0 | 60.0% | 354 | 9.3% |
| Bohol | 1,106 | 271,450 | 1,609 | 5.9 | 44.6% | 236 | 14.7% |
| Cebu City | 107 | 176,881 | 1,026 | 5.8 | 68.2% | 20 | 1.9% |
| Bogo City | 38 | 19,229 | 111 | 5.8 | 71.1% | 23 | 20.8% |
| Tagbilaran City | 24 | 19,489 | 112 | 5.7 | 54.2% | 21 | 18.8% |
In Talisay City, 95.5% of schools have a shortage; in Bohol, 44.6% do. Coverage, the division’s SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of its shortage, ranges from 1.6% in Toledo City to 20.8% in Bogo City. The division totals leave out 17 SBP classrooms at three new schools that have no division in the data; the regional totals include them.
Provinces and cities: Cebu, Bohol and the highly urbanized cities
The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) places Region VII’s schools in two provinces, Cebu and Bohol, and three highly urbanized cities that stand apart from them: Lapu-Lapu, Cebu City and Mandaue. Component cities such as Talisay and Toledo are counted inside Cebu province here, although each has its own schools division.
| Province or city | Cities and municipalities | Schools | Classroom shortage (2023) | Shortage per 1,000 learners | SBP 2026 classrooms | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cebu | 50 | 1,429 | 6,389 | 8.3 | 490 | 7.7% |
| Bohol | 48 | 1,130 | 1,721 | 5.9 | 265 | 15.4% |
| City of Lapu-Lapu | 1 | 71 | 1,034 | 10.3 | 133 | 12.9% |
| City of Cebu | 1 | 107 | 1,026 | 5.8 | 20 | 1.9% |
| City of Mandaue | 1 | 45 | 687 | 10.6 | 21 | 3.1% |
Cebu province, with its component cities, holds 6,389 classrooms of shortage, 58.8% of the region’s, and its SBP 2026 classrooms equal 7.7% of it. Bohol’s coverage is twice as high, 15.4%, on a shortage about a quarter the size.
Among the region’s 101 cities and municipalities, the City of Lapu-Lapu has the largest shortage, 1,034 classrooms. The 10 largest are all in Metro Cebu and its neighbors:
| City or municipality | Province or city | Income class | Schools | Classroom shortage (2023) | SBP 2026 classrooms | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Lapu-Lapu | City of Lapu-Lapu | 1st | 72 | 1,034 | 133 | 12.9% |
| City of Cebu | City of Cebu | 1st | 107 | 1,026 | 20 | 1.9% |
| City of Talisay | Cebu | 1st | 44 | 794 | 46 | 5.8% |
| City of Toledo | Cebu | 1st | 65 | 741 | 21 | 2.8% |
| City of Mandaue | City of Mandaue | 1st | 48 | 687 | 21 | 3.1% |
| Consolacion | Cebu | 1st | 31 | 388 | 8 | 2.1% |
| Minglanilla | Cebu | 1st | 26 | 342 | 8 | 2.3% |
| City of Carcar | Cebu | 3rd | 50 | 325 | 16 | 4.9% |
| Danao City | Cebu | 2nd | 61 | 308 | 11 | 3.6% |
| City of Naga | Cebu | 3rd | 55 | 307 | 19 | 6.2% |
The city figures follow the PSGC boundaries and the SBP masterlist’s own municipality, so they can differ slightly from the division with the same name; the City of Toledo has 21 SBP classrooms, the Toledo City division 12, because nine of the city’s classrooms are at a new school with no division in the data. Nine cities and municipalities with a shortage, 275 classrooms between them, have no SBP 2026 classroom; the largest of these is Santa Fe, Cebu, short 72. Three receive more classrooms than their shortage, 17 beyond it in all.
Schools with the largest classroom shortages in Region VII
The 10 schools with the largest shortages are large high schools and one central school, and eight of them hold classes in shifts. Together they are short 802 classrooms, 7.4% of the region’s shortage. The school ID lets a reader find each one 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 303172 | Babag National High School | Lapu-Lapu City | City of Lapu-Lapu | 6,635 | 71.3 | 108 | 0 | Yes |
| 303092 | Liloan NHS | Cebu | Liloan | 3,989 | 92.8 | 89 | 0 | Yes |
| 303113 | Talisay City National High School | Talisay City | City of Talisay | 5,450 | 86.5 | 87 | 3 | Yes |
| 119803 | Tabunoc Central School | Talisay City | City of Talisay | 3,494 | 81.3 | 81 | 0 | Yes |
| 303180 | Marigondon National High School | Lapu-Lapu City | City of Lapu-Lapu | 7,644 | 65.9 | 78 | 0 | Yes |
| 303174 | Bankal National High School | Lapu-Lapu City | City of Lapu-Lapu | 5,006 | 65.9 | 76 | 0 | Yes |
| 302846 | Dr. Cecilio Putong NHS (Bohol NHS) | Tagbilaran City | City of Tagbilaran | 5,385 | 41.4 | 73 | 0 | No |
| 302955 | Cordova NHS | Cebu | Cordova | 3,299 | 103.1 | 72 | 0 | Yes |
| 303318 | LURAY II NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL (DAY & NIGHT)) | Toledo City | City of Toledo | 4,213 | 64.8 | 70 | 0 | No |
| 303159 | Pardo NHS (Day & Night) | Cebu City | City of Cebu | 4,782 | 66.4 | 68 | 0 | Yes |
Babag National High School in Lapu-Lapu City has the largest shortage in the region, 108 classrooms, for 6,635 learners. Only one of the 10, Talisay City National High School, is on the SBP 2026 list, with three classrooms. Pardo NHS shares 10th place with Paknaan Elementary School, also short 68; ties are broken by enrollment.
The shortage is concentrated across all schools too. The 278 schools with the largest shortages, the top 10% of the region’s schools, hold 61.0% of it, and 313 schools short by 10 or more classrooms hold 64.3%. Among schools with a shortage, the median is 3.0 classrooms. For the method behind these shares, see Philippine Classroom Shortage 2023: Where the Gap Is.
SBP 2026 classrooms in Region VII
The SBP 2026 list has 234 lines for Region VII, 929 classrooms at 226 schools, all funded under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2026 with PHP 2.88 billion. The chart sets each division’s 2023 shortage beside its 2026 classrooms.
In every division the orange bar is a fraction of the blue one. Cebu City and Toledo City stand out: 1,026 and 741 classrooms short, with 20 and 12 classrooms on the list.
| Modality group | Lines | Schools | Classrooms | Share of the region’s SBP classrooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DPWH | 42 | 42 | 278 | 29.9% |
| LGU | 138 | 136 | 578 | 62.2% |
| DepEd | 54 | 54 | 73 | 7.9% |
| PSIP III (PPP) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
Local governments implement most of the region’s lines: 578 classrooms, 62.2%, against 278 by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and 73 by DepEd. Nationally, half of the list, 16,305 classrooms, is PSIP III, but Region VII has none. DepEd School Building Program 2026 in Numbers explains the modalities and their budgets.
School by school, 515 of the region’s 2026 classrooms (55.4%) fall within the receiving school’s own 2023 shortage, close to the national 53.0%, and 240 (25.8%) go to schools with no 2023 shortage. Only 153 of the 1,613 schools with a shortage, 9.5%, receive any classroom, and 33 of the 285 schools short by more than 10 (11.6%). Counted this way, the 2026 list meets 4.7% of the region’s shortage and leaves 10,343 classrooms unmet. Do 2026 Classrooms Go Where the Shortage Is? explains why a classroom beyond a school’s own shortage meets no other school’s need.
Class shifts and crowded classrooms in Region VII
In SY 2024-25, 157 of the region’s 2,828 schools in the enrollment data (5.6%) held classes in two or more shifts, five of them in three. They enroll 280,920 learners, 20.0% of the region’s total. Of the 156 shifting schools in the shortage data, 97.4% had a shortage, and 17 (10.9%) receive SBP 2026 classrooms.
The median school has 24.8 learners per classroom in elementary, 36.0 in junior high and 32.6 in senior high, against 24.9, 32.1 and 30.6 nationally; junior high is where the region is most crowded. 324 schools have more than 50 learners per classroom, with 27.4% of the learners counted, and bringing each down to 50 would take at least 2,163 classrooms. Class Shifts and Crowded Classrooms in DepEd Schools explains the measure.
The 2023 facilities data add two signs of strain: 883 schools (31.7%) use makeshift rooms, against 29.0% nationally, and 692 schools (24.9%) report a building for condemnation or demolition, 1,271 buildings in all.
Last Mile Schools in Region VII
534 of the region’s schools (19.2%) are flagged as Last Mile Schools, schools in geographically isolated, disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas and hardship posts. They hold 930 classrooms of shortage, 8.6% of the region’s, because most are small. Fewer of them have a shortage than other schools in the region, 55.2% against 58.6%.
Unlike the national pattern, Last Mile Schools in Region VII are more likely to be on the 2026 list than other schools: 11.0% against 7.1%, with 156 classrooms between them. Still, 254 Last Mile Schools with a shortage, 839 classrooms in all, receive none. DepEd’s own Last Mile School modality has nine lines with 28 classrooms in the region. Last Mile Schools: Classroom Need and 2026 Allocation compares them nationally.
What this means for school heads in Region VII
The regional average blends Metro Cebu’s crowded city schools with Bohol’s smaller rural ones, so read your own division and school first.
- 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 links every file.
- Make the case with rates, not only counts. A city division short 741 classrooms for 50,806 learners, as Toledo City is, makes a different case from a provincial division short 3,803 for 542,751.
- Put the numbers in the SIP and the AIP. Cite the shortage, enrollment and shifts with their years and sources in the school improvement plan, and track the school’s SBP lines, if any, in the annual implementation plan.
- Talk to the LGU as well as the division. Local governments implement 62.2% of the region’s 2026 classrooms, so the city or municipal government is a partner in any request.
- Check the record before you cite it. If your school’s figures look wrong, a new school ID, a merged annex, a missing building, raise it 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 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 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, with Region VII separate from the Negros Island Region (NIR) and Sulu in Region IX; divisions are DepEd’s schools divisions.
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 three schools 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 Region VII?
DepEd’s 2023 data put Region VII’s classroom shortage at 10,857 classrooms, 6.6% of the national shortage of 165,443. That is 7.8 classrooms per 1,000 learners, against 7.4 nationally, and 58.0% of the region’s public schools have a shortage.
Which division in Region VII has the biggest classroom shortage?
By count, Cebu, the provincial division, with 3,803 classrooms, 35.0% of the region’s shortage. By rate, Talisay City, short 14.8 classrooms per 1,000 learners, followed by Toledo City at 14.6.
How many classrooms will Region VII get under the SBP 2026?
The SBP 2026 masterlist has 929 classrooms for Region VII on 234 lines at 226 schools, funded under the GAA 2026 with PHP 2.88 billion. They equal 8.6% of the region’s 2023 shortage, against 19.6% nationally. The list is a plan; it does not mean the classrooms are built.
How do I check whether my school is on the SBP 2026 list?
Download the SBP lines file from the EDCOM II classroom data page and filter it by your school ID; each line gives the modality, the scope of work, the classrooms and the budget. The school table also gives your school’s total SBP 2026 classrooms beside its 2023 shortage.
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 for written permission first. How the EDCOM Classroom Data Was Cleaned explains every table and cleaning rule. The files are at data.nash.com.ph: start with the README, then the school table (Parquet, or CSV), the School Building Program lines (CSV), the city and municipality table (CSV), and every table for Stata and SPSS. Every regional figure in this report can be computed from the school table, filtered to Region VII by deped_region.
Every file, with its rows, columns and checksum, is listed on the EDCOM II classroom data page. 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 Region VII, 2023–2026: Metro Cebu. NASH Reviewer Blog. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-7-central-visayas
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
- Philippine Classroom Shortage 2023: Where the Gap Is
- DepEd School Building Program 2026 in Numbers
- Do 2026 Classrooms Go Where the Shortage Is?
- Classroom Allocation by LGU Income Class, 2026
- Class Shifts and Crowded Classrooms in DepEd Schools
- Last Mile Schools: Classroom Need and 2026 Allocation
- Regional reports: NCR, CAR, Region I, Region II, Region III, Region IV-A, MIMAROPA, Region V, Region VI, NIR, Region VII, Region VIII, Region IX, Region X, Region XI, Region XII, Caraga, BARMM
- Rankings and deep dives: Congressional districts, Top 20 cities and municipalities, Rizal, Quezon City, City of Manila, Tawi-Tawi, Cavite, Cost of a classroom
- Explainers: PSIP III, Senior high shortage, Junior high shortage, Excess classrooms, Learning Continuity Spaces, How learners reach school
- For teachers and school heads: Action research and thesis topics
- Related: CRLA Results SY 2025-26 in Region VII: Bohol and Metro Cebu, DepEd Classroom and School Building Data, SY 2023-2024, DepEd School Improvement Plan (SIP): Steps, AIP and SRC, How to Read DepEd Data: A Guide for Aspiring School Heads
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.