By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
Education Secretary Leonor Briones on Thursday thanked local leaders, its officials, teachers, and parents for their support and cooperation in the ongoing enrollment for the upcoming School Year (SY) 2020-2021.
Secretary Leonor Briones (FACEBOOK / DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION / MANILA BULLETIN)
“We are just in the eighth day of the month-long enrollment and almost 10 million learners are already enrolled, 36.26 % of our projected enrollment for 2020,” said Education Secretary Leonor Briones during a Senate basic education committee hearing.
DepEd has set a month-long enrollment period from June 1 to June 30. Briones noted that after eight days, the level of enrollment already achieved over 36% of projected enrollment for the coming school year.
“This is the result of cooperation from the legislature, from local governments, especially at the barangay level,” she said. “It also shows that the parents are cooperating, local governments are cooperating, teachers are cooperating in tracking the students,” she added.
Based on the DepEd national enrollment data for SY 2020-2021 as of June 11, there are
9, 961, 396 learners nationwide who have registered using remote or virtual enrollment system for both public and private schools across all basic education levels. Of this number, 9, 942, 105 learners have enrolled in public schools and 314, 029 registered in private schools.
The national enrollment data covers public and private schools as well as State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) and learners across all basic education level including Kindergarten, Elementary or Grades 1 to 6, Junior High School (JHS) or Grades 7 to 10, and Senior High School (SHS) or Grades 11 and 12. Also included non-graded learners with disabilities and those under the Alternative Learning System (ALS) program.
DepEd’s latest data showed that there are 577, 695 learners enrolled in Kindergarten; 4, 897, 223 in Elementary; 3, 288, 223 in JHS; and 1,096, 731 in SHS. There are also 27, 700 learners with disability who registered along with 73, 870 under the ALS program.
The highest number of enrollees were recorded from Region IV-A with 1, 662, 239 followed by National Capital Region (NCR) with 1, 402, 751 and Region III with 1, 103, 213 which covers Kinder to SHS learners - including ALS and non-graded learners with disability.
Amid the threat of COVID-19, DepEd is implementing a “remote enrollment” system nationwide for this school year so learners can register without face-to-face interaction.
Based on DepEd’s enrollment guidelines, “no face-to-face registration” will be allowed during the first two weeks of June. Learners who cannot enroll using any remote method will be allowed in the last two weeks of June to “physically enroll” in strict compliance of physical distancing and health standards, and in coordination with the local government units (LGUs).
Private schools, DepEd said, are covered by the enrollment policy set by the agency. The enrollment coves all learners intending to attend SY 2020-2021 - including those who enrolled during the early registration period in February 2020.
In school year 2019-2020, enrollment data provided by DepEd’s Education Management Information System Division-Planning Service showed that the total number of enrollment on all sectors and level of education was 27, 790, 114 for both formal and informal system. Of this number, 27, 030, 391 are learners from Kinder to Grade 12 and 759, 723 are in the ALS program. There were 22, 572, 923 enrollees in public schools and 4, 203, 676 in private schools last school year.