BACOLOD CITY – The Department of Education (DepEd) here is optimistic the target number of enrollees for this school-year here would be reached or even surpassed.
DepEd noted that only 136,480 students had enrolled for this school-year.
Celestino Nifras, division coordinator of Brigada Eskwela, DepEd-Bacolod, noted that the number is only 89.55 percent of last year’s number of enrollees which stood at 152,400.
Still, Nifras had reason to be cheerful, knowing that the students were excited as they trooped to their respective schools in the opening of face-to-face classes for the first time on Monday, Aug. 22, since all social gatherings were suspended in March 2020 with the declaration of pandemic.
Nifras said that the 136,480 students were enrolled here in 70 elementary and secondary schools for this year, as of Aug. 22.
Of the said number, 107,385 elementary pupils and high school students were enrolled in public schools, while 29,095 were enrolled in private schools.
Nifras said they are positive that they can reach or even exceed the number of enrollees last year, since enrollment is still ongoing.
Meanwhile, he said that the opening of classes here was successful, as they have not encountered any problem so far.
The students, especially in elementary, were divided into two batches or sessions, since they are still in the transition period until Oct. 31, 2022.
The morning batch will attend the face-to-face classes while they will be on modular learning in the afternoon, as a new batch of students will be joining the face-to-face classes.
The full implementation of the face-to-face classes is set on Nov. 2, 2022.
Meanwhile, DepEd-Negros Occidental spokesperson Ian Arnold Arnaez said that the opening of classes was systematic and orderly in the province, despite the shortage of classrooms in some schools due to the increase in the number of students.
Arnaez said that teachers were able to address the problem by dividing the students into two batches.
As of Aug. 21, Arnaez said that 295,797 students were enrolled in the province for this school year, which is equivalent to 87.78 percent.
Of the number, 150,307 were in public elementary schools, 86,741 in public junior high school, 38,560 in public senior highschool, 1,636 in integrated schools, and 18,553 in private schools.