Two weeks before the school year formally opens on Oct. 5, the Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday announced that it has achieved over 99 percent of the enrollment in public schools.

“We have 14 days until school opening and we have a lot of good news that is being shared to use when it comes to preparations for the opening of classes,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said during the virtual “Handang Isip, Handa Bukas” press conference.

DepEd national data on enrollment as of Sept. 21 showed that there are 22.36 million students enrolled in public schools this School Year (SY) 2020-2021. This is 99.06 percent of the enrollment in last school year at 22.5 million.

“We are very successful in attracting our enrollees into the public system schools,” Briones said. “This is a very good news because in spite of all the challenges, fears, anxiety, and pressures, we were able to achieve 99 percent of last year’s public school enrollment,” she added.

Currently, there are 1.6 million pupils enrolled in Kindergarten; 11.2 million in elementary; 6.9 million in Junior High School (JHS); 2.05 million in Senior High School (SHS); 62, 804 non-graded learners with disabilities, and 384, 027 in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) under the public school system.

Enrollment in public schools was held from June 1 to July 15. Due to the COVID-19 situation in the country, DepEd has 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.

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).

The latest enrollment in public and private schools has reached 24.53 million students across all basic education levels. This comprised 88.35 percent of the SY 2019-2020 enrollment at 27.7 million.

“We have exceeded our original target of 80 percent so this is already a victory for us and for the entire basic education system,” Briones said.

Briones noted that enrollment in private schools has reached 2.12 million or 49.32 percent of last SY’s enrollment at 4.3 million.

“We see many students going back to private schools,” she said. “Overall, our latest enrollment data is very inspiring and encouraging.”