No more classroom shortage: Aquino

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - President Benigno S. Aquino III declared today that the government has already wiped out the shortage of classrooms in the country.

Aquino made the announcement during the ceremonial turnover of 66,813 classrooms held in Carmona town in the northern Philippine province of Cavite.

"As promised, we have wiped out the shortage in classrooms. As a bonus, we were able to overshoot our target," he said in the vernacular during his speech.

Upon assuming the presidency, Aquino had vowed to build 66,800 classrooms by the end of 2013.

The 62-million backlog in textbooks and 2.5-million backlog in armchairs had been wiped out in 2012. The government said these efforts are in keeping with its goal of improving the access of young Filipinos to education.

Aquino said the government will now focus on filling up the shortage in public school teachers estimated at 4,000.