The Department of Education (DepEd) reported on Wednesday that it has already registered a total of 24.72 million enrollees in basic education in both public and private schools nationwide, three days before the expected opening school year (SY) 2020-2021 on October 5, 2020.
The DepEd said the enrollment figures represent 89.01 percent compared to last year’s enrollment.
For the public schools, the enrollment has been recorded at 22.50 million, representing 99.68 percent of SY 2019-2020 students’ population.
For private schools there were 2.16 million enrollees, or 50.30 percent, while 394,274, or 53.28 percent have enrolled in Alternative Learning System, of last year’s enrollees.
The DepEd, however, added it is still anticipating that the number of student enrollees will increase since late enrollees would still be accepted until as late as November.
Undersecretary for Planning, Human Resource and Organizational Development and Field Operations Jesus Mateo stressed that late enrollees will be accepted as stated in Department Order 003, Series of 2018.
“[They will still be accepted until] November 21, 2020 based on DO3 series 2018,” Mateo told the BusinessMirror as he also appealed to the parents, or guardians, not to wait until November 21 to enroll their children.
Mateo cited that a school may accept late enrollees provided that the learner will be able to meet 80 percent of the prescribed number of school days for each school year and the quarterly requirement to pass the grade level as governed by the latest existing applicable DepEd issuances.
Earlier, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said that enrollment numbers for the SY are encouraging because, “despite the challenges posed by the economic impact of Covid-19, a clear majority of our parents have decided that the education of their children must continue.”
