DepEd: Late enrollees allowed until end-September

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education will accept late enrollees for School Year 2023-2024 until the end of September.

In a Viber message to reporters on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said the department is expecting more students to enroll in the next weeks after recent disruptions caused by typhoons during the school registration period.

The department is still “on course” in achieving its target enrollment of 28.8 million students in all schools, similar to the figure last school year, Bringas added.

As of Wednesday morning, DepEd is still around three million short of its target with 25.89 million enrollees, according to data from DepEd’s Learner Information System (LIS).

“The numbers are moving until now because schools are still reporting to the LIS. Once 100% of schools have reported, we will have the official number for this school year,” Bringas said in a mix of English and Filipino.

DepEd policy allows schools to accept late enrollees provided that the student will still be able to meet 80% of the prescribed number of school days and the quarterly requirement to pass the grade level.

After the first month of the school year, schools will employ child-find procedures to determine students’ reasons for not returning to school, Bringas said.

“The (Alternative Learning System) will be the other alternative for them to continue if they are unable to continue formal schooling for some reasons,” Bringas added.

—- With reports by The STAR / Janvic Mateo