By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
After three weeks of conducting remote enrollment, the Department of Education (DepEd) has recorded over 13 million enrollees in public and private schools nationwide as of June 20.
Department of Education (MANILA BULLETIN)
DepEd national enrollment data showed that the total number of enrollees for School Year (SY) 2020-2021 has already reached 13,254,716 nationwide covering all basic education levels, including ALS and non-graded learners with disabilities. Of this number, 12,786,022 learners are enrolled in public schools and 458,320 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.
DepEd’s latest data showed that there are 661,907 learners enrolled in Kindergarten; 5,505,252 in Elementary; 3,723,663 in JHS; and 1,249,966 in SHS. There are also 37,192 learners with disabilities who registered along with 126,650 under the ALS.
Region IV-A still has the highest number of enrollees with 2,055,576 followed by National Capital Region (NCR) with 1,669,933 and Region III with 1,498,676.
The month-long enrollment this month is in preparation for the opening of classes on August 24.
DepEd has strictly implemented a remote enrollment system through alternative means of communication that do not require physically reporting to school, such as text, call, email, and online messaging.
This week, DepEd opened a “drop box” enrollment system to cater to those parents who do not have access to remote means to communicate with their schools but wish to enroll their child. Since June 16, drop boxes and kiosks were set up in barangay halls and schools so parents – who do not have access to remote means of communication – may pick up or drop off the Learner Enrollment and Survey Form (LESF) to register their children.
‘Happy’ with the turnout
“Whilst enrollment is not yet finished, what we can say is that we are very happy with the turnout,” DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo told the Manila Bulletin. “With all challenges of remote enrollment and the drop box done for the first time, we have over 13.25 million enrollees in both public and private schools,” he added.
Even after allowing physical retrieval and submission of enrollment and survey forms, the number of enrollees for the upcoming school year is relatively low compared to actual turnout last year. However, Mateo said it is difficult to compare the number of enrollees last year and this year since “circumstances are very different.”
Despite this, Mateo said that the latest number of enrollees means a lot to DepEd. “To us, this means parents and guardians over thirteen million learners continue to believe that DepEd can deliver learning opportunities through multi-modal modes to their children in a safe manner in time of COVID,” he added.
No target enrollment for this SY
Due to the health crisis, DepEd said that it has not set a specific target for enrollment or number of enrollees for this coming school year, said lawyer Nepomuceno Malaluan, DepEd undersecretary and spokesman earlier. “We are using last year's enrollment as benchmark or comparator to gauge how many decided to proceed or opt out of this school year,” he added.
In School Year 2019-2020, enrollment data obtained by the Manila Bulletin from DepEd’s Education Management Information System Division-Planning Service showed that there were 22,572,923 enrollees in public schools and 4,203,676 learners in private schools.
Last school year, the target enrollment of DepEd was 28,061,779 but the actual and overall total number of enrollment on all sectors and level of education was 27,790, 114 for both formal and informal systems. Of this number, 27,030,391 were learners from Kinder to Grade 12 and 759, 723 were in the ALS program.