More than 8,000 private schools have yet to inform the Department of Education (DepEd) if they will operate this coming school year (SY) 2020 -2021.
Data from DepEd as of Aug. 17 showed that of the 14, 435 private schools which operated nationwide in SY 2019-2020, only 5,601 private schools have started operations.
“So far, iyan pa lang ang nagbukas base sa report ng regions,” DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said. “Note that it is as of Aug. 17, we are still gathering the data,” he added.
A total of 8, 834 private schools have yet to make a final decision if they will start offering classes this school year.
Mateo said that they have yet to submit or express their intention to open their schools.
Before Aug. 24, DepEd said that there are 1, 672 private schools that started their school year. On Aug. 24, a total of 3, 264 private schools opened. From Aug. 24 to Aug. 31, 56 more schools also started their operations.
DepEd is expecting 12 private schools to open from Sept. 1 to 4; 12 schools from Sept. 7 to 18; three schools from Sept. 14 to 18; one school from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2; and 12 schools to open from Oct. 5 to 9. There are also 555 more private schools set to open this school year but their school opening dates are not announced.
Mateo explained that the context is to find out how many private schools will open before and after Aug. 24 -- which was the “original” school opening date before it was moved in October. “We also requested the field to submit a report on those who submitted Notice of Closure,” he added.
As of Aug. 25, Mateo said that 440 private schools offering basic education nationwide will not operate this SY 2020-2021. The data came from 16 regions since Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have not submitted yet.
DepEd data showed that Region 3(Central Luzon) has the most number of private schools that will stop their operations with 88, followed by Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 67 schools; and National Capital Region (NCR) with 54.
Mateo said that the the private schools that submitted notices of closure are mainly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The downturn in economy, he explained, drastically “affected the enrollment as well.”