Briones cites 'victorious' school opening for the nth time
Education Secretary Leonor Briones on Tuesday reiterated a “victorious” school opening this school year almost a month after the classes in public schools started under a distance/blended learning set-up.

(DepEd / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Briones, during the “Laging Handa” public briefing, maintained that opening a new school year amid the continued threat of COVID-19 remains a “victory” for the DepEd and for the entire education sector.
“What is our assessment, is opening schools at this time really victorious? For us, anything and everything that has happened and continues to happen - not only in education but in many of our activities - we are able to continue, that’s a victory over the COVID-19,” Briones said.
DepEd enrollment data as of Nov. 3 showed that DepEd has achieved 90.15% of SY 2019-2020 enrollment with 25.03 million students enrolled in both public and private schools nationwide.
In public schools, DepEd has even exceeded the enrollment last year with 22.75 million enrollees. Enrollment in private schools, however, remains low at 2.224 million or 51.67% of last SY’s enrollment.
Amid the reported challenges under the new learning set up, Briones said that “we try to continue especially with the learning of our students.”