Concrete Stone pushes modular classrooms to bridge gap

Insider Spotlight

• Concrete Stone Corp. showcases factory-built classrooms to Marcos
• Modular system aims to ease nationwide classroom shortages
• Bataan plant highlights faster build times and consistent quality
• Structures designed for durability and disaster resilience
  
  
  

Concrete Stone Corp. (CSC) is positioning its modular construction system as a scalable solution to the Philippines’ persistent classroom shortage, following a site visit by President Marcos and key education officials to its Bataan facility.

The company demonstrated how factory-built classroom components can be rapidly assembled, cutting construction timelines while maintaining consistent quality standards.

Why it matters

The Department of Education (DepEd) continues to face infrastructure gaps driven by rising enrollment and limited construction capacity. CSC’s approach offers a potential workaround by shifting much of the building process off-site, reducing delays tied to weather, labor constraints, and logistics.

What’s happening

At its Mariveles plant, CSC produces core structural components— including walls, slabs, and beams—in a controlled environment before assembling them into finished classrooms. The standardized units are designed to meet DepEd specifications and can accommodate typical class sizes.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara joined the President in inspecting the facilities, signaling government interest in alternative construction methods to accelerate delivery.

By the numbers

Each modular classroom spans over seventy square meters and can host more than forty students and a teacher, aligning with current public school requirements.

The system also reduces on-site labor needs, a key advantage amid workforce constraints in the construction sector.

On the ground

At Mariveles National High School’s Cabcaben Annex, administrators say the prefabricated setup enabled faster classroom deployment, allowing students to use the facilities sooner than with traditional builds.

That speed-to-use is emerging as a critical metric for public education planners.

The big picture

CSC president Alfredo Comendador Jr. noted that modular construction is widely used in markets like Hong Kong and Singapore, where speed and resilience are essential.

The Philippine government is increasingly exploring similar models to modernize infrastructure delivery.

What’s nextIf adopted at scale, modular classrooms could become a cornerstone of the country’s school-building strategy, particularly in disaster-prone and high-growth areas where traditional construction struggles to keep pace. —Vanessa Hidalgo |Ed:Corrie S. Narisma