Enrollment rate in Manila public schools hits 100.46%

MANILA, Philippines — Even as the Department of Education (DepEd) expressed dismay over the low enrollment rate nationwide for the coming school year, public school officials in Manila announced that they had exceeded their target by hitting 100.46 percent.

Based on the data provided by the Manila Division of City Schools, there were 270,219 public school enrollees as of Friday, more than the earlier projection of 268,972.

In an online broadcast, Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said the increase might be due the fact that the coronavirus pandemic had left some parents without jobs, forcing them to pull out their children from private schools.

“We prepared a buffer for the number of enrollees this coming school year because we know that life has been hard these past few months. We anticipate that it will be even harder in the near future, and that is why we predicted that private school students may be transferring to public schools,” he added. There were no figures available, however, on how many of the enrollees were transferees from private schools.

Isko thanks parents

Domagoso, meanwhile, thanked parents for heeding the city government’s advice to enroll their children in the coming school year where “blended learning,” instead of face-to-face classes, would be the norm.

The DepEd has extended enrollment to July 15 to allow enough time for more students to sign up online. As of last week, only 15.9 million students had enlisted in private and public schools, 12 million short of the 28 million target.

Last month, the city government announced that it would be buying around 110,000 tablets equipped with SIM cards and 11,000 laptops with pocket Wi-Fi devices worth P994 million for public school students and teachers.

A total of P1.065 billion would be allocated by the city government for the purchase of gadgets, Domagoso said.

The laptops will be distributed to teachers while the tablet devices with SIM cards will be provided for students before the opening of the school year.