DepEd enrollment dips lower than pre-pandemic levels with 26.6 million students

MANILA, Philippines — Exactly two weeks since classes began, the Department of Education is still short of around 2.2 million enrolled students to meet its goal of clinching 28.8 million enrollees for school year 2023-2024.

With a total of 26.6 million students registered for the school year, DepEd’s enrollment numbers have dipped below pre-pandemic figures (27 million) for the first time since it began to steadily increase two years ago, based on the latest data from the DepEd’s Learner Information System (LIS).

This number includes all enrollees from public and private kindergarten, elementary and high schools, Philippine schools overseas and the Alternative Learning System (ALS).

In the two previous school years or from 2020 to 2022, enrollment was able to steadily climb and surpass pre-pandemic levels, with SY 2022-2023 registering 27.79 million enrolled students in formal basic education.

This was after DepEd saw a "sharp decline" in enrollment in 2020 or the first school year during the pandemic, going from 27.03 million the previous year (SY 2019-2020) to 26.23 million (SY 2020-2021).

These are based on January 2023 LIS data as shown in DepEd's presentation during its budget briefing at the House of Representatives.

Last week, DepEd said that it is expecting more students to enroll before the end of September after recent weather disturbances caused disruptions during the school registration period. 

RELATED: DepEd: Late enrollees allowed until end-September  

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said that the department is still "on course" in achieving its target enrollment of 28.8 million students as schools are still reporting to the LIS.

Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) last week expressed alarm over the decline in student enrollment, which at the time had been around three million.

Castro said that DepEd should explain the worrying trend, which adds on top of the problem of students’ learning loss.

"It is truly disheartening to see that instead of an increase in the number of students as we transition back to normalcy, we are witnessing a drastic drop of over three million enrollees," Castro said.