THE Department of Education (DepEd) will start distributing bamboo desks in selected schools next month. Executive Order 879, Series of 2010, mandated "a 20 percent bamboo allocation for school furniture." "This has long been a policy. But, now we are giving life to it. For the first time in history, we will be able to implement this mandatory 20 percent bamboo allocation as to school furniture," Education Secretary Sonny Angara said in Filipino and English in the statement on Monday. DepEd said that from February to March 2026, it will distribute 144,081 sets of tables and chairs for learners and 3,235 sets for teachers, "focusing on the replacement of worn, shared, or unusable furniture that affects daily classroom activities." "In carrying out this distribution, DepEd is also applying a long-standing government requirement that at least 20 percent of school furniture be made from bamboo," it said. "At DepEd, we want to show that school furniture can be strong, sustainable, and of quality for the welfare of our learners and teachers. This is also a good way to promote the Tatak Pinoy that we pushed in the Senate before to acknowledge the creativity of our fellow Filipinos," Angara, a former senator, said. The DepEd added that the construction of 5,766 classrooms, a P16.19-billion program, was underway. "We will continue to solve our shortage of facilities in the whole country. We will continue to provide efficient and faster solutions by maximizing the funding that we got this year — for the sake of our teachers and learners," Angara said.