DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa
MANILA, Philippines — It turns out that the number of basic education students who enrolled this school year has exceeded the Department of Education’s (DepEd) 28.6 million target as well as the turnout from the previous year, according to the agency’s data released on Tuesday.
A total of 28,797,660 had registered for the new school year of 2022-2023—1.2 million higher than last year’s 27.5 million.
Earlier data from DepEd showed only 27.69 million enrollees, which was initially short of its target.
Calabarzon had the highest number at 3.9 million; followed by Central Luzon at 2.9 million; and the National Capital Region at 2.7 million.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa had said on Monday that late enrollees could still be accepted.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte declared the opening of classes a “victory for basic education.”
‘Peaceful and smooth’
Benjo Basas, chair of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), affirmed that the first day of school was “generally peaceful and smooth.”
He said coordination between the local governments, communities, police and parents played a big role.
But he also noted “the perennial problems expected like the lack of classrooms, chairs and teachers, especially in specialized learning areas like kindergarten, special education and senior high school.”
He also pointed out the classes that were held in the schools’ indoor courts.
“The learning and teaching process might not be properly done in situations like these. It’s even more difficult for the grade levels gravely affected by the two years of distance learning,” Basas said, referring to the primary grades of kindergarten to Grade 3.
His group urged DepEd to immediately hire new teachers and nonteaching personnel to augment their staff, build more classrooms, provide more equipment like laptops, ensure internet connectivity and look after the health and safety of the students and teachers.
“While the teachers are ready to sacrifice and offer service that is more than what is expected of them, this should not be the norm in the government,” TDC also said.
Health protocols followed
Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) commended the adherence among schools to COVID-19 health protocols.
“Based on what we saw yesterday, we saw in totality that almost all schools that opened and the students who went to schools followed protocols,” Health Undersecretary and DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in her press briefing on Tuesday.
She advised against the holding of simultaneous extracurricular activities to prevent crowding in the campuses.
The DOH also suggested that DepEd could designate “safety officers” who will conduct health screenings and implement COVID-19 protocols.
Education Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said teachers may act as safety officers in their classrooms.
“They already know what to do when a student exhibits symptoms. They should automatically send them home and shift to online learning temporarily until the student recovers and is cleared of COVID[-19],” he said in the same briefing.
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