865 private schools temporarily stop operations for SY 2020-2021

On Monday the Department of Education (DepEd) confirmed that there are 865 private schools out of 14,435 have already expressed intent to temporarily stop their operations this upcoming school year. 781 schools are offering elementary; 124 are offering Junior High School (JHS), and 87 are offering Senior High School (SHS).

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Based on the data from the department, reasons behind the suspension of operations are as follows:

• 374 private schools were forced to suspend operations due to low or no enrollment
• 333 schools were cited by DepEd as non-operational due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• 35 schools will not be operating due to their financial status
• 15 due to concerns over the safety of learners and school personnel
• 25 due to unreadiness
• 9 due to their lack of permit, and
• 74 private schools will not be operating with other and varied reasons for suspending their operations

DepEd data showed that Region 3 (Central Luzon) has the most number of private schools that will stop their operations with 141 followed by Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 136, and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 126 and Western Visayas with 86.

There are only about 2 million students have enrolled in private schools so far, compared to the 4.3 million from last school year. This means private schools have reached only 47% of last year's enrollment figures, according to DepEd.

The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), an umbrella organization of private schools, last Wednesday projected that private schools would only reach 50% of last year's enrollment rates for School Year 2020-2021. COCOPEA Managing Director Joseph Noel Estrada said that around 400,000 private school students have transferred to public schools as of August 27.

Meanwhile, according to Undersecretary Jesus Mateo, the 865 private schools that suspended its operations directly affected 58, 327 students and 4, 448 teachers totaling to 62,815.

Of the 58, 327 students affected by the temporary closure of 865 private schools, Calabarzon has 19, 658 students affected, followed by Central Luzon with 10, 092, and NCR with 8, 546.

As for the 4, 448 teachers affected by the closure of these private schools. NCR has the biggest number of affected teachers with 925, followed by Region 4-A with 858 and Region 3 with 822.