DepEd reached 100% enrollment in public schools despite pandemic

On Thursday, The Department of Education (DepEd) has achieved a “100 percent” enrollment in public schools regardless of the adverse impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the education sector. The number of registered learners this year slightly surpassed the figure from the previous year.

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Data from DepEd showed that there are 22,587,496 million learners were registered in public schools, a bit higher than the 22,572,923 public school students last year.

However, of the 22.58 million public school students enrolled this year, nearly 400,000 are transferees from private schools. 

The department expects the numbers of enrollees since late enrollees would be accepted in public schools until November said Education Undersecretary Jesus Mateo.

He added that, DepEd will accept late enrollees, however, the decision to enroll the students is with the parents or guardians.

Meanwhile, the DepEd said that 2.17 million students have enrolled in private schools, or 50.54% of last year’s 4.3 million registered students.

Region-4A (Calabarzon) logged the highest number of enrollees with 3,421,256 while the Cordillera Administrative Region recorded the lowest with 400,105.

As for the alternative learning system, 397,060 learners have enrolled which comprises 53.66% of last year’s records.

Overall, there are a total of 24.81 million learners who have enrolled for School Year 2020 to 2021, or 89.37% of the previous year’s over 27.7 million students. This figure also covers state universities and colleges and local universities and colleges that offer senior high school programs.

Education officials have attributed the low enrollment in private schools to the pandemic's effects on the work and businesses of Filipinos, which resulted in loss of income.

Last Tuesday, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said she expected private school enrollment to pick up as the economy gradually reopens.

Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan earlier said that the department would discuss interventions that could be done for those who would not enroll this year.