DepEd says enrollees now account for 76% of last year’s figures
MANILA, Philippines — A total of 21,344,915 learners have enrolled for basic education in private and public schools for the coming school year as of Friday, representing 76 percent of last year’s enrollment, according to the Department of Education.
Of this number, 20,147,020 have enrolled in public schools alone, representing 88 percent of last year’s total enrollment in public institutions.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,169,976 enrollees have enlisted so far in private schools.
“We anticipate the figures to still increase in the coming weeks due to a lag in reporting of enrollment data, especially from private schools. Their enrollment period does not necessarily coincide with the enrollment period of DepEd,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said in a statement.
Briones also said that reports for homeschooling are not yet available as some learners of the Alternative Learning System have been affected by the loss of jobs triggered by the coronavirus disease pandemic.
She added that the current enrollment figures are “encouraging” as it shows that a “clear majority” of parents have still decided to continue education for their children despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 crisis.
“We are optimistic that we can meet our adjusted target of 80% of last year’s enrollment (27.7M) submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA),” she said.
Briones said DepEd will still allow late enrollees, citing Section V-D of Department Order No. 003, series of 2018 which reads: “A school may accept late enrollees provided that the learner will be able to meet eighty percent (80%) of the prescribed number of school days for each school year and the quarterly requirement to pass the grade level as governed by the latest existing applicable DepEd issuances.”
“We express our appreciation to the general public, especially the parents of our learners, which continues to believe that DepEd can deliver learning opportunities through various learning delivery modalities in a safe manner,” said Briones.
“We thank the President for his consistent support for education, including ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’ for our funding needs,” she added.
Briones likewise thanked teachers and staff, local government units, members of the Education Forum, non-government units, civil society organization, and the private sector for their contributions in the preparation for the opening of classes on August 24.
