With over 22 million students currently enrolled in both public and private schools, the Department of Education (DepEd) maintained it has achieved its target enrollment rate for the school year (SY) 2020-2021.
National enrollment data from DepEd as Wednesday, July 29, showed that the total number of enrollees for SY 2020-2021 has reached 22, 233, 806 nationwide for Kindergarten to Grade 12, including Alternative Learning System (ALS) and non-graded learners with disabilities.
The data also showed that 20, 841, 279 students have enrolled in public schools or 92.3% of last school year’s enrollment rate.
Meanwhile, there are 1, 359, 984 students who registered in private schools or 31.1% of the total enrollment in SY 2019-2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DepEd has decided to adjust its enrollment target to 80% of last year’s - which was 27.7 million - as earlier submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
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 ALS program.
DepEd’s latest data showed that there are 1, 529, 132 students enrolled in Kindergarten; 10, 916, 979 in Elementary; 6, 990, 979 in JHS; and 2, 427, 104 in SHS. There are also 58, 141 learners with disabilities who registered along with 312, 361 under the ALS.
The highest number of enrollees were recorded from Region IV-A with over three million followed by Region III with 2.31 million and National Capital Region (NCR) with 2.24 million.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, DepEd has implemented a remote enrollment system nationwide.
The opening of the school calendar was also delayed for three months, from June to August, to prepare for the transition into blended/distance learning.
DepEd has also allowed schools to accept late enrollees until the last week of September.