ILOILO CITY – Enrollment in public schools in Western Visayas region dropped to less than one million students in school year 2025-2026 without Negros Occidental province.
PUPILS at Iloilo Central Elementary School. (Tara Yap)
The Department of Education-6 recorded an initial enrollment of 905,494 students, down from 1.4 million in school year 2024-2025.
DepEd-6 Information Officer Hernani Escular Jr. said enrollment in Negros Occidental is now under the newly-created Negros Island Region (NIR) which Negros Oriental province is also a part of.
Escular said 462,305 pupils have enrolled in kindergarten and elementary in the region as of June 16; 297,044 students in high school; and 146,145 in senior high school.
Iloilo province has the highest number of enrollees with 384,283, 364,171 in 42 towns and the 20,112 in the component city of Passi.
Iloilo City has 86,485. Capiz province has 142,776, 111,324 in 16 towns and 31,452 in the capital Roxas City.
There are also 126,303 students in Aklan province; 124,804 in Antique province; and 40,843 in Guimaras province.
The opening of the school year 2025-2026 was generally peaceful in Western Visayas.