# Classroom Shortage in Region VIII, 2023–2026: Samar Island

Region VIII lacked 5,990 classrooms in 2023, 86.8% of them in rural schools; Samar island runs highest, led by Catbalogan City at 13.1 per 1,000 learners.

This is the Markdown copy of [Classroom Shortage in Region VIII, 2023–2026: Samar Island](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-visayas), 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.

Region VIII (Eastern Visayas, often searched as Region 8) lacked 5,990 classrooms in 2023, according to DepEd's classroom shortage data as published in the EDCOM II classroom construction dashboard. That is 3.6% of the country's shortage of 165,443 classrooms, the 11th largest of the 18 regions. Measured against learners, the region is short 5.4 classrooms for every 1,000 learners enrolled in SY 2024-25, below the national rate of 7.4 and 13th among the regions, and 49.6% of its public schools have a shortage, against 54.2% nationally.

What sets Region VIII apart is where its shortage sits: in rural schools, and on Samar more than on Leyte. Rural schools hold 86.8% of the shortage, the highest share of any region and more than twice the national 39.0%. All five divisions above the regional rate are on Samar island, led by Catbalogan City at 13.1 per 1,000 learners. The region has more public schools than any other, 4,188, and its shortage is spread thinly across them: almost no school runs shifts, and a quarter of its schools are Last Mile Schools, 73.7% of which have a shortage, against 41.4% of other schools.

The figures below cover Region VIII's 13 schools divisions across Samar, Leyte and Biliran, 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

- Region VIII lacked 5,990 classrooms in 2023, 5.4 per 1,000 learners against 7.4 nationally, and 2,076 of its 4,188 public schools (49.6%) had a shortage.
- Rural schools carry 86.8% of the shortage and are short 5.7 classrooms per 1,000 learners, against 3.9 in the region's 192 urban schools.
- Catbalogan City has the highest rate of the 13 divisions, 13.1, followed by Calbayog City (8.4) and Samar (Western Samar) (8.3), the only three above the national rate; Biliran and Borongan City are lowest at 2.0.
- Last Mile Schools hold 1,812 classrooms of the region's shortage, more than in any other region, and 727 of them with a shortage receive no SBP 2026 classroom.
- The SBP 2026 list holds 940 classrooms for Region VIII, 15.7% of its shortage against 19.6% nationally, and 10.2% of its schools with a shortage get any.
- 30 cities and municipalities with a shortage, 804 classrooms between them, have no SBP 2026 classroom; the largest is General Macarthur, Eastern Samar, short 83.
- Only 15 schools (0.4%) held classes in shifts in SY 2024-25, and the median elementary school has 20.0 learners per classroom, against 24.9 nationally.

## Region VIII against the country

The table compares Region VIII with the country on the same definitions.

| Indicator                                               |   Region VIII |   Philippines |
|:--------------------------------------------------------|--------------:|--------------:|
| Schools in the 2023 shortage data                       |         4,188 |        47,659 |
| Schools with a classroom shortage                       |         49.6% |         54.2% |
| Classroom shortage (2023)                               |         5,990 |       165,443 |
| Shortage per 1,000 learners                             |           5.4 |           7.4 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms                                     |           940 |        32,419 |
| SBP 2026 classrooms as a share of the shortage          |         15.7% |         19.6% |
| Schools with a shortage that get any SBP 2026 classroom |         10.2% |         13.3% |
| Schools with two or more shifts (SY 2024-25)            |          0.4% |          4.3% |
| Median learners per classroom, elementary               |          20.0 |          24.9 |
| Last Mile Schools                                       |         25.3% |         18.5% |
| Schools using makeshift rooms (2023)                    |         34.3% |         29.0% |
| Schools with a building for condemnation or demolition  |         19.4% |         28.9% |

Region VIII is a region of uncrowded schools that still lack rooms. Shifts are almost absent, 0.4% of schools against 4.3% nationally, and elementary classrooms hold 20.0 learners at the median against 24.9. Yet makeshift rooms are more common than nationally, 34.3% against 29.0%, and a quarter of the schools are Last Mile Schools. Buildings marked for condemnation are less common, 19.4% against 28.9%.

Kindergarten to Grade 10 account for 5,270 classrooms of the shortage and senior high school for 721, 12.0%. The urban and rural split runs against the national pattern. Nationally, urban schools are short 8.4 classrooms per 1,000 learners and rural ones 6.1, and urban schools hold 60.2% of the shortage; in Region VIII, the 3,974 rural schools are short 5.7 per 1,000 and hold 86.8% of it, while the 192 urban schools are short 3.9. Alongside the shortage, 1,464 schools, more than a third of the region's, report 4,639 more Kindergarten to Grade 10 classrooms than they need; one school's spare rooms do not reduce another school's shortage.

## Classroom shortage by division in Region VIII

Region VIII has 13 schools divisions: six provincial divisions (Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Samar, Northern Samar and Eastern Samar) and seven city divisions. The chart ranks them by the shortage per 1,000 learners.

![Horizontal bar chart of the 2023 classroom shortage per 1,000 learners in Region VIII's 13 divisions. Catbalogan City is highest at 13.1 (350 classrooms), followed by Calbayog City at 8.4 (396) and Samar (Western Samar) at 8.3 (1,111), the only three past the national line of 7.4; Northern Samar (7.0) and Eastern Samar (6.7) are above the regional 5.4, Leyte has the largest count, 1,421, at 4.1, and Biliran and Borongan City are lowest at 2.0.](https://nash.com.ph/blog/_astro/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-visayas-divisions.wBRW51Fk_QMp7H.webp)

*Figure 1. Classroom shortage per 1,000 learners by division, Region VIII, 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-8-eastern-visayas-divisions.png).*

The chart splits the region by island. The five divisions above the regional line are all on Samar: Catbalogan City, Calbayog City and the Samar division on the western side, then Northern Samar and Eastern Samar. Every Leyte and Biliran division is below it, from Southern Leyte (4.7) down to Biliran (2.0). The one Samar exception is Borongan City, the capital of Eastern Samar, which ties Biliran for the lowest rate.

Catbalogan City stands out even within Samar. It is short 350 classrooms for 26,795 learners, 13.1 per 1,000, and 79.3% of its schools have a shortage. By count, though, the largest division is Leyte, the provincial division, short 1,421 classrooms, 23.7% of the region's, at a rate of 4.1 because it enrolls 344,959 learners. Northern Samar is short almost as many, 1,150, for fewer than half as many learners.

| Division              |   Schools |   Learners (SY 2024-25) |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   Shortage per 1,000 learners |   Schools with a shortage |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:----------------------|----------:|------------------------:|----------------------------:|------------------------------:|--------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| Catbalogan City       |        58 |                  26,795 |                         350 |                          13.1 |                     79.3% |                    66 |      18.8% |
| Calbayog City         |       174 |                  47,309 |                         396 |                           8.4 |                     69.5% |                    46 |      11.6% |
| Samar (Western Samar) |       748 |                 130,689 |                       1,111 |                           8.3 |                     63.9% |                   128 |      11.5% |
| Northern Samar        |       608 |                 164,260 |                       1,150 |                           7.0 |                     58.7% |                    76 |       6.6% |
| Eastern Samar         |       466 |                  98,358 |                         664 |                           6.7 |                     43.1% |                    82 |      12.4% |
| Southern Leyte        |       342 |                  71,346 |                         332 |                           4.7 |                     39.5% |                    69 |      20.8% |
| Leyte                 |     1,270 |                 344,959 |                       1,421 |                           4.1 |                     44.0% |                   175 |      12.3% |
| Maasin City           |        78 |                  14,692 |                          52 |                           3.5 |                     19.2% |                    18 |      34.8% |
| Ormoc City            |       100 |                  53,716 |                         168 |                           3.0 |                     45.0% |                    68 |      40.6% |
| Tacloban City         |        60 |                  54,153 |                         159 |                           2.9 |                     40.0% |                    57 |      35.7% |
| Baybay City           |        83 |                  25,332 |                          54 |                           2.1 |                     34.9% |                    32 |      59.3% |
| Biliran               |       143 |                  47,627 |                          97 |                           2.0 |                     32.2% |                    98 |     100.8% |
| Borongan City         |        58 |                  17,793 |                          36 |                           2.0 |                     34.5% |                    24 |      67.0% |

The share of schools with a shortage falls from 79.3% in Catbalogan City to 19.2% in Maasin City. Coverage broadly runs the opposite way to the rates: the lowest is Northern Samar's 6.6%, and the highest are in divisions with the smallest shortages, Biliran (100.8%), Borongan City (67.0%) and Baybay City (59.3%). The division totals leave out one SBP classroom at one school with no division in the data; the regional totals include it.

## Provinces and cities: Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran and Tacloban

The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) places Region VIII's schools in six provinces and one highly urbanized city, Tacloban, which stands apart from Leyte. Component cities are counted in their provinces: Calbayog and Catbalogan in Samar, Ormoc and Baybay in Leyte, Maasin in Southern Leyte and Borongan in Eastern Samar.

| Province or city   |   Cities and municipalities |   Schools |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   Shortage per 1,000 learners |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:-------------------|----------------------------:|----------:|----------------------------:|------------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| Samar              |                          26 |       980 |                       1,857 |                           9.0 |                   241 |      13.0% |
| Leyte              |                          42 |     1,453 |                       1,643 |                           3.9 |                   275 |      16.7% |
| Northern Samar     |                          24 |       608 |                       1,150 |                           7.0 |                    76 |       6.6% |
| Eastern Samar      |                          23 |       524 |                         700 |                           6.0 |                   106 |      15.2% |
| Southern Leyte     |                          19 |       420 |                         384 |                           4.5 |                    87 |      22.7% |
| City of Tacloban   |                           1 |        60 |                         159 |                           2.9 |                    57 |      35.7% |
| Biliran            |                           8 |       143 |                          97 |                           2.0 |                    98 |     100.8% |

Samar province, with Calbayog and Catbalogan, has the largest shortage, 1,857 classrooms, 31.0% of the region's, and the highest rate, 9.0 per 1,000 learners. Leyte, with Ormoc and Baybay, is short nearly as many, 1,643, at less than half the rate, 3.9, and it receives more 2026 classrooms than Samar, 275 against 241. The three Samar provinces together hold more than half of the region's shortage. Northern Samar has the lowest coverage of any province, 6.6%, and Biliran the highest, 100.8%.

Region VIII has 143 cities and municipalities, more than any other region in these data. The City of Calbayog has the largest shortage, 396 classrooms, and eight of the 10 largest are on Samar island:

| City or municipality   | Province or city   | Income class   |   Schools |   Classroom shortage (2023) |   SBP 2026 classrooms |   Coverage |
|:-----------------------|:-------------------|:---------------|----------:|----------------------------:|----------------------:|-----------:|
| City of Calbayog       | Samar              | 1st            |       174 |                         396 |                    46 |      11.6% |
| City of Catbalogan     | Samar              | 3rd            |        58 |                         350 |                    66 |      18.8% |
| Ormoc City             | Leyte              | 1st            |       100 |                         168 |                    68 |      40.6% |
| City of Tacloban       | City of Tacloban   | 1st            |        60 |                         159 |                    57 |      35.7% |
| Catarman               | Northern Samar     | 1st            |        54 |                         150 |                     4 |       2.7% |
| Oras                   | Eastern Samar      | 2nd            |        42 |                         139 |                     1 |       0.7% |
| Las Navas              | Northern Samar     | 2nd            |        63 |                         132 |                     3 |       2.3% |
| Gandara                | Samar              | 1st            |        64 |                         131 |                    11 |       8.4% |
| Santa Rita             | Samar              | 1st            |        50 |                         121 |                    22 |      18.2% |
| Laoang                 | Northern Samar     | 1st            |        67 |                          99 |                    20 |      20.2% |

Three municipalities in the table get almost nothing: Catarman, the capital of Northern Samar, is short 150 classrooms with four on the list; Oras, Eastern Samar, is short 139 with one; and Las Navas, Northern Samar, is short 132 with three. Across the region, 30 cities and municipalities with a shortage, 804 classrooms between them, have no SBP 2026 classroom at all; the largest is General Macarthur, Eastern Samar, short 83. Five receive more classrooms than their shortage, 36 beyond it in all. The city figures follow the PSGC and the SBP masterlist's own municipality, so they can differ from the division of the same name; here the four cities in the table match their divisions. [Classroom Allocation by LGU Income Class, 2026](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-allocation-lgu-income-class) looks at which local governments receive classrooms nationally.

## Schools with the largest classroom shortages in Region VIII

The 10 schools with the largest shortages are mostly high schools, six of them in provincial capitals and cities: Catbalogan, Calbayog, Tacloban, Maasin and Catarman. Together they are short 443 classrooms, 7.4% 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   |
|------------:|:-----------------------------------------------|:----------------------|:-----------------------|------------------------:|-------------------------:|----------------------------:|----------------------:|:---------------------|
|      303620 | Samar National School                          | Catbalogan City       | City of Catbalogan     |                   5,893 |                     49.1 |                         124 |                     4 | No                   |
|      313801 | Calbayog City National High School             | Calbayog City         | City of Calbayog       |                   5,355 |                     68.7 |                          66 |                     0 | No                   |
|      303663 | Leyte National High School                     | Tacloban City         | City of Tacloban       |                   9,104 |                     44.0 |                          50 |                     3 | No                   |
|      303636 | Tominamos Integrated School                    | Samar (Western Samar) | Santa Rita             |                   1,833 |                     70.5 |                          34 |                     0 | Yes                  |
|      313701 | Catbalogan National Comprehensive High School  | Catbalogan City       | City of Catbalogan     |                   1,344 |                     61.1 |                          34 |                    16 | No                   |
|      303505 | Pedro E. Candido Memorial National High School | Eastern Samar         | Hernani                |                     997 |                     20.8 |                          33 |                     0 | No                   |
|      122349 | Lawaan Central Elementary School               | Eastern Samar         | Lawaan                 |                     909 |                     28.4 |                          29 |                     0 | No                   |
|      313401 | Maasin City National High School               | Maasin City           | City of Maasin         |                   1,489 |                     41.4 |                          25 |                     0 | No                   |
|      303541 | Catarman National High School                  | Northern Samar        | Catarman               |                   5,054 |                     43.6 |                          24 |                     0 | No                   |
|      303361 | Carigara National High School                  | Leyte                 | Carigara               |                   2,053 |                     51.3 |                          24 |                     0 | No                   |

Samar National School in Catbalogan City is short 124 classrooms for 5,893 learners, nearly twice the next school, Calbayog City National High School, short 66. Seven of the 10 are on Samar island, four of them in Samar province. Three are on the SBP 2026 list: Catbalogan National Comprehensive High School with 16 classrooms, Samar National School with four and Leyte National High School, the largest school in the table with 9,104 learners, with three. Only Tominamos Integrated School in Santa Rita holds classes in shifts. Pedro E. Candido Memorial National High School in Hernani is short 33 classrooms with only 20.8 learners per classroom, so its shortage is not a matter of crowding alone; the data do not say why. Carigara National High School shares 10th place with other schools also short 24, such as Tabango National High School and Gen. MacArthur National Agricultural School in Eastern Samar; ties are broken by enrollment.

Beyond these 10, the shortage is spread more thinly than in the country. The 419 schools with the largest shortages, the top 10% of the region's schools, hold 52.7% of it, against 66.0% nationally, and the 65 schools short by 10 or more hold 21.0%, against 60.8% nationally. Half of the shortage sits in 379 schools, 9.0% of the total, and the median school with a shortage lacks 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 Region VIII

The SBP 2026 list has 341 lines for Region VIII, 940 classrooms at 328 schools, all funded under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2026 with PHP 3.13 billion. That is 2.9% of the national list, against the region's 3.6% of the shortage. The chart puts each division's 2023 shortage beside its 2026 classrooms.

![Paired horizontal bars of the 2023 classroom shortage and SBP 2026 classrooms in Region VIII's 13 divisions. Leyte has 1,421 classrooms of shortage and 175 on the list, Northern Samar 1,150 and 76, Samar (Western Samar) 1,111 and 128, Eastern Samar 664 and 82, and Calbayog City 396 and 46; only Biliran's list matches its shortage, 98 against 97.](https://nash.com.ph/blog/_astro/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-visayas-sbp-2026.CElHhmMB_Z1sjhQV.webp)

*Figure 2. 2023 classroom shortage and SBP 2026 classrooms by division, Region VIII. Chart: © 2026 Mark Anthony Llego, NASH Reviewer. [Download the full-resolution chart (PNG)](https://nash.com.ph/blog/charts/deped-data/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-visayas-sbp-2026.png).*

The four large provincial divisions at the top of the chart, Leyte and the three Samar divisions, each have a list a fraction of their shortage; Northern Samar has 76 classrooms for 1,150. Lower down the bars draw closer: Ormoc City has 68 for 168, Tacloban City 57 for 159, and Biliran's two bars are the same length.

| Modality group   |   Lines |   Schools |   Classrooms |   Share of the region's SBP classrooms |
|:-----------------|--------:|----------:|-------------:|---------------------------------------:|
| DPWH             |     110 |       110 |          321 |                                  34.1% |
| LGU              |     162 |       162 |          530 |                                  56.4% |
| DepEd            |      69 |        68 |           89 |                                   9.5% |
| PSIP III (PPP)   |       0 |         0 |            0 |                                   0.0% |

Local governments implement 530 of the region's 2026 classrooms (56.4%), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 321 (34.1%) and DepEd 89 (9.5%), on 69 lines at 68 schools. Region VIII has no PSIP III public-private partnership line; 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.

School by school, 430 of the region's 2026 classrooms (45.7%) fall within the receiving school's own 2023 shortage, against 53.0% nationally, and 296 (31.5%) go to 112 schools that had no shortage in 2023. Only 211 of the 2,076 schools with a shortage, 10.2%, receive any classroom, and 10 of the 56 schools short by more than 10 (17.9%). Counted this way, the 2026 list meets 7.2% of the region's shortage and leaves 5,560 classrooms unmet. [Do 2026 Classrooms Go Where the Shortage Is?](https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-allocation-vs-shortage-2026) explains this school-by-school count.

## Class shifts and crowded classrooms in Region VIII

Class shifts are almost absent in Region VIII. In SY 2024-25, only 15 of the region's 4,191 schools in the enrollment data (0.4%) held classes in two shifts, among the lowest shares of any region, and none in three. They enroll 7,511 learners, 0.7% of the region's total. Of the 15, 73.3% had a 2023 shortage, and one receives SBP 2026 classrooms.

Classrooms are also less crowded than the national median at every level: 20.0 learners per classroom in elementary, 29.4 in junior high and 28.2 in senior high, against 24.9, 32.1 and 30.6. Only 141 schools have more than 50 learners per classroom, with 5.5% of the learners counted, and bringing each down to 50 would take at least 360 classrooms. [Class Shifts and Crowded Classrooms in DepEd Schools](https://nash.com.ph/blog/class-shifting-crowded-classrooms) explains the measure. In this region, the case for a classroom rests less on crowding than on rooms that are missing or unfit.

The 2023 facilities data bear that out in part. 1,431 schools (34.3%) use makeshift rooms, against 29.0% nationally, while 808 schools (19.4%) report a building for condemnation or demolition, 1,240 buildings in all, below the national 28.9%.

## Last Mile Schools in Region VIII

1,059 of the region's schools (25.3%) are flagged as Last Mile Schools, schools in geographically isolated, disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas and hardship posts. Only CAR has more. Between them they hold 1,812 classrooms of shortage, 30.3% of the region's and more than the Last Mile Schools of any other region.

Region VIII's Last Mile Schools are far more likely to have a shortage than its other schools, 73.7% against 41.4%, a much wider gap than the national one of 61.5% against 52.5%. They are less likely to be on the 2026 list, 6.6% against 8.1% of other schools, with 167 classrooms between them. As a result, 727 Last Mile Schools with a shortage, 1,683 classrooms in all, receive none. DepEd's own Last Mile School modality has 12 lines with 32 classrooms in the region. Nationally, EDCOM II's National Education Plan 2026–2035 counts 9,542 Last Mile School classrooms to be built (DepEd, 2025), with 1,590 a year in 2026, 2027 and 2028 (EDCOM II, 2026). [Last Mile Schools: Classroom Need and 2026 Allocation](https://nash.com.ph/blog/last-mile-schools-classroom-shortage) compares them across regions.

## What this means for school heads in Region VIII

In the typical Region VIII school with a shortage, the gap is a room or two in a rural school, often a Last Mile School. Plan around that.

- **Start from your school's own row.** Look up your school ID in the school table for its 2023 shortage, learners per classroom, Last Mile flag and SBP 2026 lines; the [EDCOM II classroom data page](https://nash.com.ph/edcom-classroom-data) links every file.
- **Build the case on missing and unfit rooms, not crowding.** With a median of 20.0 learners per elementary classroom, crowding figures will rarely carry a request here. Cite the 2023 shortage, makeshift rooms and buildings for condemnation instead, with their years.
- **If you head a Last Mile School, say so.** Last Mile Schools in the region are far more likely to have a shortage than other schools, yet 727 of them with a shortage get no 2026 classroom. Name the status and DepEd's Last Mile School modality in the request.
- **On Samar, cite the division's rate.** Catbalogan City (13.1), Calbayog City (8.4) and Samar (8.3) are above the national rate, against 5.4 for the region as a whole.
- **Bring the municipality in early.** Local governments implement 56.4% of the region's 2026 classrooms, and 30 municipalities and cities with a shortage have none; the mayor's office is part of the request.
- **Write it into the plan.** Put the shortage and the school's SBP lines, if any, in the [school improvement plan](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-improvement-plan) and the annual implementation plan, so the request has a record behind it.

## 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 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. Schools are urban or rural as the school table classifies them. Regions follow the PSGC, with NIR separate from Regions VI and VII 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 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 Region VIII?

DepEd's 2023 data put the classroom shortage in Region VIII (Eastern Visayas) at 5,990 classrooms, 3.6% of the national shortage of 165,443. That is 5.4 classrooms per 1,000 learners, against 7.4 nationally, and 49.6% of the region's 4,188 public schools have a shortage.

### Which division in Region VIII has the biggest classroom shortage?

By count, Leyte, the provincial division, with 1,421 classrooms, 23.7% of the region's shortage, followed by Northern Samar with 1,150. By rate, Catbalogan City, short 13.1 classrooms per 1,000 learners, followed by Calbayog City at 8.4.

### How many classrooms will Region VIII get under the SBP 2026?

The SBP 2026 masterlist has 940 classrooms for Region VIII on 341 lines at 328 schools, funded under the GAA 2026 with PHP 3.13 billion. They equal 15.7% of the region's 2023 shortage, against 19.6% nationally. Being on the list means a classroom is planned, not that it has been built.

### Is the classroom shortage worse in Samar or in Leyte?

By rate, Samar. Samar province is short 9.0 classrooms per 1,000 learners, Northern Samar 7.0 and Eastern Samar 6.0, against 3.9 in Leyte, 4.5 in Southern Leyte and 2.9 in the City of Tacloban. By count the two are closer: Samar province is short 1,857 classrooms and Leyte 1,643. These figures show where the shortage is, not why.

## 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 Region VIII 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 Region VIII, 2023–2026: Samar Island*. NASH Reviewer Blog. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-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
- Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II). (2026). *National Education Plan 2026–2035* (Year Three report).

## 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 Region VIII: Strong but Uneven](https://nash.com.ph/blog/crla-results-sy-2025-2026-region-8-eastern-visayas), [DepEd School Improvement Plan (SIP): Steps, AIP and SRC](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-school-improvement-plan), [DepEd Classroom and School Building Data, SY 2023-2024](https://nash.com.ph/blog/deped-classroom-school-building-data-sy-2023-2024)

*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 Region VIII, 2023–2026: Samar Island*. NASH Reviewer. https://nash.com.ph/blog/classroom-shortage-region-8-eastern-visayas. 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