The Department of Education confirmed Monday that nearly 63,000 students and teachers are affected by the closure of over 800 private schools offering basic education programs that temporarily stopped their operations for the school year (SY) 2020-2021.
During the “Handang Isip, Handa Bukas” virtual press briefing, DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said 865 private schools will suspend their operations this school year, directly affecting 58, 327 students and 4, 448 teachers totaling to 62,815.
Among the reasons for not operating, Mateo said, include no or low number of enrollment, impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and safety of students or school personnel. “Some schools said they were not ready while others do not have permits to operate,” he added.
Data from DepEd as of Sept. 11 showed that of the 865 private schools nationwide that have already expressed intent to temporarily stop their operations this upcoming school year, 781 are offering elementary; 124 are offering Junior High School (JHS), and 87 are offering Senior High School (SHS).
Among the private schools that will stop their operations, Mateo disclosed that 690 are offering purely elementary (Kinder to Grade 6); 22 offer purely JHS (Grades 7 to 10); and 51 are offering purely SHS (Grades 11 and 12). Sixty-six private schools are offering elementary to JHS (K to Grade 10) and 25 schools offer K to 12.
Based on the DepEd data, 374 private schools are stopping their operations because they have “no or low number of enrollment” while 333 said they are reeling from the impacts of the pandemic.
There are 35 schools who stopped their operations because of their financial status and 15 schools said they cannot ensure the “safety of students or school personnel.”
A total of 25 schools they “were not ready” for school opening because they cannot comply with the requirements set by DepEd on alternative learning modalities. There were also nine schools that failed to get permit to operate and a total of 74 schools with other and varied reasons for suspending their operations.
Mateo noted that these data was received from various Regional Offices (ROs) and Schools Division Offices (SDOs) which covers all 17 regions in the country.
Of the 865 private schools, DepEd data showed that Region 3 (Central Luzon) has the most number of private schools that will stop their operations with 141 followed by Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 136, and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 125.
In SY 2019-2020, DepEd said that there were 14, 435 private schools which operated nationwide.
The DepEd data also showed that there are 58, 327 students affected by the temporary closure of over 800 private schools. In Calabarzon, 19, 658 students are affected; 10, 092 in Central Luzon; and 8, 546 in NCR.
There are also 4, 448 teachers affected by the closure of these private schools. NCR has the biggest number of affected teachers with 925, followed by Region 4-A with 858 and Region 3 with 822.