Enrollment now at 9M, DepEd reports

ALMOST BACK TO NORMAL Students enroll in person at Lakandula High School in Tondo, Manila, although the Department of Education says that the procedure can also be done online. —RICHARD A. REYES

More than 9 million students have been enrolled for the coming school year 2022-2023 as of Friday, according to the Department of Education (DepEd).

Citing information from the agency’s Learning Information System, a total of 9,192,331 students have been registered since the enrollment opened on Monday.

The figure was one-third of the 28 million students the DepEd expects before the end of enrollment period on Aug. 22, which also marks the opening of the school year.

Of the 9 million enrollees, 4,279,600 were elementary pupils, 2,965,068 junior high school and 1,339,519 senior high school. A total of 608,114 kindergarten learners have also been enrolled.

The highest number of enrollees were reported in Calabarzon with 1,596,668, followed by the National Capital Region (1,389,331), and Central Luzon (963,494).

Last school year, more than 27 million learners were enrolled in basic and secondary education, up 3.83 percent from the previous school year’s numbers.

The DepEd ordered the return of in-person enrollment for school year 2022-2023, in preparation for the resumption of full in-person classes by November.

Under DepEd Order No. 35, series of 2022, signed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, enrollment period for public schools will be from July 25 to Aug. 22, the opening of classes for the school year.

Remote enrollment, which the DepEd implemented in the past two school years due to health restrictions, will still be implemented.

Under the order, in-person enrollment may be done in schools regardless of the alert level where the school is located. Minimum health and safety standards, however, must be observed, specifically by the wearing of face masks, conducting temperature checks upon entry, ensuring availability of disinfectants, and observing physical distancing.

Remote enrollment

The parents or legal guardians of kindergarten, grade 7 and grade 11 learners will communicate or reaffirm their intent to enroll their children to a school of their choice via physical enrollment and submission of the Enhanced Basic Education Enrollment Form (BEEF).Learners may also enroll themselves, provided that their Enhanced BEEF are signed by their parent or legal guardian.

Grades 1 to 6, grades 8 to 10, and grade 12 learners who have existing accounts in the Learner Information System will still need to update their information by filling out the Enhanced BEEF.

For the past two school years, remote enrollment has been largely implemented as the main enrollment procedure by DepEd due to the restrictions imposed by the health authorities.

Within these periods, learners can be enrolled through phone calls, text messages, online messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Viber, and email messaging.

Schools also established drop boxes in front of the school or the barangay hall, among other areas, where parents or guardians can get printed copies of Enhanced BEEF and submit the filled out form in the same drop boxes.

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