Students are shown attending class in a provincial high school in the Philippines in this file photo. The Department of Education said that early enrollees will be admitted first in public schools when they open on June 4, 2012. INQUIRER PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – With less than three weeks before the start of classes, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced that students who had enrolled early in January would be given priority in admission to the public schools.
Education Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo said in an interview that the early enrollees would be admitted first as schools gear up for the opening of school year 2012-13 on June 4.
Late enrollees would still be admitted if there are classroom slots left or they would be referred to less congested schools, Mateo said.
“We will give preference to those who enlisted during early enrollment. If you did not sign up during the early enrollment and there is no more space in a class, we will refer you to another school,” said Mateo in an interview with the Inquirer.
“We will not allow congestion to plague the schools, while there are schools that are not congested,” he said.
The DepEd expects some 20 million students to enroll for the free education in some 45,000 public schools nationwide.
Mateo said the DepEd had pushed for early enrollment in January to have ample time to prepare the needed resources by June—classrooms, textbooks, desks, toilets, among others.
But for those enrolling at this time, Mateo said the DepEd was looking at several options to accommodate them.
“One option is what we’re doing in Quezon City, where we are busing students [from one community] to a school where there is more space,” he said.
“Another is through alternative delivery modes, where students divide their time between peer learning through modules and the classroom,” he said.
Mateo said the DepEd understood that there were certain situations where late enrollment was unavoidable, thus he urged parents and students who had not done so to proceed to the nearest school and enroll.
“If there is still space, the student would be admitted. If there is no more space, the student would be referred to another school,” he said.
“We’re not turning away students. It’s our mandate under the Constitution to provide access to education,” he said.
Originally posted at 05:21 pm | Wednesday, May 16, 2012