MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) has achieved a “100 percent” enrollment in public schools amid the adverse impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the education sector.
Data from the DepEd as of Thursday morning showed that there are now 22,587,496 learners who have enrolled in public schools, slightly higher than the 22,572,923 enrollees in the previous school year.
The figure, however, also includes transferees from private schools. Education Undersecretary Tonisito Umali earlier said there are around 400,000 to 450,000 students who have transferred to public schools due to the economic crisis brought by the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the DepEd also said that 2.17 million students have enrolled in private schools, or 50.54 percent of last year’s over 4 million registered students.
For the alternative learning system, 397,060 learners have enrolled which comprises 53.66 percent of last year’s records.
Overall, there are a total of 24.81 million learners who have enrolled for School Year 2020 to 2021, or 89.37 percent of the previous year’s over 27.7 million students. This figure also covers state universities and colleges and local universities and colleges that offer senior high school programs.
The DepEd previously targeted to record 80 percent of enrollees from the previous school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enrolment for School Year 2020 to 2021, which formally opened on October 5, will still continue until November 21, according to the DepEd.