The Department of Education (DepEd) reported that it has reached its 89.79% target for enrollees for school year 2024-2025.
The DepEd said 24,865,701 are now enrolled in the country from Elementary to Senior High School.
The DepEd further said most of the said students were enrolled in public schools, adding up to 21,610,597 students. DepEd’s target enrollees for this school year is 27,772,835.
Region IV-A recorded to have the biggest number of enrolled students at 3,568,529 students. Region III followed second with 2,634,823 students, while NCR placed third with 2,571,357 students.
DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara meanwhile met with the Department of Education-National Employees Union (DepEd-NEU) National Executive Officers and National Board of Trustees at the DepEd Central Office to discuss and address the concerns of non-teaching personnel.
Accompanied by DepEd NEU National President Domingo B. Alidon, Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn M. Sevilla, OIC-Undersecretary for Human Resource and Organizational Development and Administration Wilfredo E. Cabral, Undersecretary for Operations Revsee Escobedo, and other DepEd and DepEd-NEU officials, the meeting focused on the issues raised by the NEU and worked on developing resolutions to benefit the Department’s staff.
One of the key topics discussed was the DepEd NEU’s proposal to review DepEd Order No. 002, s. 2024, which mandates the immediate removal of administrative tasks from public school teachers.
“We will track everything. I will assign HR and the Operations team to take note of all the suggestions. There are many professions involved, and I am sure we can create a career path progression. It may take time, so please bear with us, but we will study it thoroughly,” Angara said.
DepEd-NEU also suggested allocating the 2023 Collective Negotiation Agreement Incentive (CNAI) of P3,000, including savings pooled from DepEd Field offices, and a retirement benefit of P20,000 for DepEd Non-Teaching Employees across all governance levels.
DepEd-NEU recommended that the department issue a directive to ensure representation for non-teaching personnel and implement the CNA in Local School Boards (LSB).
“Since DepEd-NEU is the sole non-academic union of DepEd, we will remind our superintendents and regional officials to recommend their inclusion in the LSB,” Escobedo emphasized.
In addition, DepEd-NEU proposed the formation of the DepEd Union Management Coordinating Council (UMCC) to strengthen the implementation of the welfare benefits as stated in the CNA.
