The Department of Education (DepEd) is looking forward to having a bigger number enrollees this upcoming school year despite the ongoing public situation in the country.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in a public briefing on June 15, said that the preparations for the opening of School Year (SY) 2021-2022 are ongoing.

“Gusto kong i-emphasize patuloy ang pag-aaral, hindi natin ititigil ang edukasyon (I want to emphasize that learning will continue, education will not stop),” Briones said.

For SY 2020-2021, DepEd said that there were 26.6 million enrollees in the basic education level - both in public and private schools. This number is lower compared to the 27.7 million enrollment for SY 2019-2020 but higher than the targeted number of DepEd (80 percent) given the challenges brought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“I want to assure the parents --- this year, 26.6 million children are studying and we look forward to having them back with us, we look forward to moving them on because our children cannot be left behind,” Briones said in a mix of English and Filipino.

In the same briefing, Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan also expressed optimism that more learners will enroll this upcoming school year.

“Sana ay matapatan natin kung hindi man mahigitan pa iyong current enrollment natin (We’re hoping to have the same number of enrollees or if we can surpass the our current enrollment),” Malaluan said.

Malaluan explained that the current enrollment is more than 96 percent of the enrollment in SY 2019-2020, noting that the enrollment in private schools was greatly affected.

“Mas nabawasan ay iyong sa pang-pribadong paaralan at sana ay kung magkakaroon ng pagbubukas ng ekonomiya, kung may pagkakataon ay tumaas iyong enrollment din sa private schools natin (Enrollment in private schools has decreased and hopefully, if economy opens up and there will be more opportunities, the enrollment in our private schools will also increase),” he added.

Malaluan explained that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the current enrollment in public schools has surpassed the enrollment figures pre-COVID. “Iyong enrollment natin pre-COVID sana ay masustain natin ito dito sa dadating na pasukan (Our pre-COVID enrollment, I hope we can sustain it here in the coming school year),” he added.

As part of its preparation for the upcoming school year, DepEd conducted the early registration for incoming Kinder, Grades 1, 7 and 11 from March until May.

Based on the final monitoring, DepEd has recorded 4.5 million early registrants for SY 2021-2022 which is a “99 percent turnout” compared to last year’s figure.

As of June 1, DepEd tallied a total of 4,557,435 learners in Kindergarten, Grade 1, 7, and 11. Based on the data, there breakdown of early registrants are as follows: 991,689 for kindergarten; 1,554,556 for Grade 1 (elementary school); 1,143,193 for Grade 7 (junior high school), and 867,997 for Grade 11 (senior high school).

DepEd said that the top three regions with the highest number of registered learners are Calabarzon with 480,709; Central Visayas with 405,001; and Western Visayas with 387,152.

Meanwhile, DepEd noted that learners in Grades 2-6, 8-10, and 12 are “considered pre-registered” and are not needed to participate in the early registration.

However, all students who wish to enroll for SY 2021-2022, even those who participated in the early registration, will still be required to formally enroll once the enrollment period starts.