The Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday announced that there are almost 24 million enrollees currently enrolled in both public and private schools nationwide.

As of September 1, the total number of enrollees for School Year (SY) 2020-2021 has reached 23, 987, 944 nationwide in both public and private schools. Of this number, 22, 019, 105 students are enrolled in public schools and 1, 923, 179 students in private schools.

DepEd said that the current enrollment rate is 86.31 percent of the total enrollment in SY 2019-2020 at 27.7 million.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, during a televised meeting with President Duterte and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on August 31, expressed optimism that the enrollment rate for the upcoming school year will continue to increase ahead of the formal school opening on October 5.

“People were saying, especially the left and the opposition, that nobody will enroll because of COVID and they were calling for academic freeze,” Briones told Duterte. “Everyday, may humahabol,” she added.

Briones said DepEd’s original target for this SY was set at 80 percent of last school year’s total enrollment “because of COVID and the downturn in the economy.”

However, she noted that DepEd has already surpassed its adjusted enrollment target figures.

Enrollment in public schools, Briones said, is now over 97 percent of last year’s enrollment. DepEd will initiate alternative learning delivery modalities through “distance education as well as blended learning” this school year.

To ensure a smooth opening of classes, Briones said that DepEd has conducted dry-runs and simulations for blended learning.

“Aside from online platforms, we will be using TV, we are going to use radio, in addition to printed materials,” she said.

To date, Briones said there are 516 schools all over the country that conducted dry runs and simulations through the DepEd Regional Offices (ROs) and School Division Offices (SDOs).

“Nakita natin ang mga challenges, nako-correct kaagad (We’ve seen the challenges and we corrected these immediately),” she added.

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 are non-graded learners with disabilities and those under the Alternative Learning System (ALS) program.

Latest DepEd enrollment data showed that there are 1, 688, 631 enrollees in Kindergarten, 11, 592, 808 in Elementary, 7, 567, 075 in JHS, and 2, 710, 279 in SHS. There are also 63, 549 learners with disabilities who registered along with 365, 602 under the ALS program.

The highest number of enrollees were recorded from Region IV-A (Calabarzon) with 3.25 million, followed by Region III (Central Luzon) with 2.58 million, and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 2. 49 million.

From June 1 to July 15, DepEd has implemented remote enrollment through alternative means of communication that do not require physically reporting to school, such as text, call, email, and online messaging.

DepEd also opened drop boxes and kiosks in barangay halls and schools where 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 ensure that students will still be able to continue their studies even if the registration has formally ended, DepEd directed schools to allow late registration so they can still accommodate or accept enrollees who wish to attend the upcoming school year.