DepEd: 22 million students returning to school today

MANILA, Philippines — A smooth opening of classes is seen today, with more than 22 million elementary and high school students expected to troop to school, based on the Department of Education (DepEd)’s enrollment figures.

The DepEd’s data as of 2 p.m. yesterday indicated that 22,676,964 students are enrolled in public and private kindergarten, elementary and high schools across the country for school year (SY) 2023-2024.

Region IV-A (Calabarzon) tallies the most number of enrollees with 3,465,598, followed by Region III (Central Luzon) with 2,586,926 and the National Capital Region with 2,480,970.

Region VI (Western Visayas) has 1,709,039 enrollees, followed by Region VII (Central Visayas) with 1,714,121 and Region V (Bicol) with 1,462,992.

The DepEd said 1,541 students also signed up in Philippine schools overseas.

The agency earlier said it is expecting around 28.8 million students for this school year, a little over the 28.4 million enrolled in public and private schools in SY 2022-2023.

DepEd spokesman Undersecretary Michael Poa said schools would be accepting late enrollees.

“Yes, we are accepting late enrollees since it is usual that many would enroll on the first day of classes and days after,” Poa added.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said public schools usually accommodate late enrollees in the first week of classes for them to finalize their Learner Information System.

The DepEd has yet to give a definite date for the last day of enrollment.

Nonetheless, the agency usually allows late enrollment provided that students can meet at least 80 percent of the prescribed number of school days.

‘Embo’ schools

Bringas and other DepEd officials are expected to visit today the 14 enlisted men’s barrio or “embo” schools located in the disputed barangays in Makati and Taguig Cities.

“Yes it is assured. We will personally visit the schools tomorrow,” Bringas told reporters when asked if the DepEd can assure the orderly opening of classes in the schools covered by the territorial dispute of the Makati and Taguig local government units (LGUs)

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte earlier issued a department order placing the 14 public schools located in the “embo” barangays under the supervision of her office.

“During the transition period, all activities to be conducted within the premises of and/or in relation to the subject public schools, including those from the local government units of Makati and Taguig, shall require prior approval from the Office of the Secretary,” Duterte’s order read.

“Further, the concerned school heads shall directly report and defer to the Office of the Secretary on matters pertaining to the daily operations of the subject public schools,” it added.

The Vice President also earlier created a committee that will draft the transition plan for the 14 schools.

She will be in Cebu and is scheduled to visit several “last mile” schools in the province on the first day of classes today.

‘Bare wall’

Meanwhile, House Deputy Minority leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro again slammed the DepEd’s policy on keeping school walls bare, without any exception for posting of learning aids.

“It is very unfortunate that the Department of Education has unilaterally ordered the removal of pictures of our revolutionary heroes from classrooms. This decision appears to contradict the goal of nurturing a sense of patriotism and love for our country among the younger generation,” Castro said in time for the celebration of National Heroes Day yesterday.

“As we commemorate National Heroes Day and the Cry of Pugadlawin, I urge the Department of Education to reconsider its ‘bare wall’ policy and instead encourage the display of images that honor our national heroes. By doing so, we can ensure that our children grow up with a strong sense of pride and love for our country,” she added.

The lawmaker earlier called on the DepEd to instead address the classroom shortage and low salary of teachers as among perennial problems in the education sector.

At a recent Senate hearing, the DepEd admitted that classroom shortage in public schools has already ballooned to 159,000 this year from 91,000 last year.

The agency said that to address this, it will consider multiple class hour shifts as well as blended-learning, which may include online classes and use of modules to reduce the number of students inside classrooms.

While generally ready, some schools are expected to encounter perennial problems hounding the country’s basic education system, such as shortage of classrooms, teachers and learning materials.

While the government has repeatedly committed to address the problem, a recent STAR report found that the proposed budget for new school buildings for 2024 falls short of the actual requirements.

Out of the proposed new appropriations of P712.4 billion for the DepEd, only P33.7 billion will be for basic education facilities. This includes P19.6 billion for the construction, replacement and completion of new school buildings; P6.5 billion for the repair of existing facilities and P2 billion for the construction of medium-rise school buildings and installation of disability access facilities.

A review of budget documents submitted to Congress showed that the government is only targeting the completion of 1,628 new classrooms next year, even lower than this year’s target of 6,379.

The government is also targeting 3,943 new classrooms that are ongoing construction by next year.

In Quezon City, the local government said it is looking for ways to address congestion in public schools serving large communities.

“We have started building vertically in some areas. We are also institutionalizing the blended learning modality. Congested grades will shift to blended modality, where there will be three days of face-to-face classes and two days of asynchronous or synchronous classes,” QC Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement over the weekend.

“Together with the Schools Division Office and the Education Affairs Unit, we are also considering a school service or bus system to transfer excess students to QC schools that have not reached their full absorptive capacity,” Belmonte added.

The local government is also looking at the possibility of implementing a voucher system that will enable elementary students to enroll in private schools.

Up north, the DepEd said schools affected by Super Typhoon Goring have contingencies to adopt alternative delivery modes (ADMs), such as modular distance learning.

Bringas told The STAR that school heads may decide to shift to ADMs until they determine that conducting face-to-face classes is already safe.

Under existing policy, “in-person, online classes and work” in public elementary and high schools are automatically suspended in areas under tropical cyclone wind signals, orange and red rainfall warning and flood warning.

“In the event of canceled or suspended classes, modular distance learning, performance tasks, projects or make-up classes shall be implemented to ensure that learning competencies and objectives are still met,” the policy read. — Sheila Crisostomo