More than 16 million of the students recorded in academic year 2020-2021 have enrolled so far for 2021-2022 as of Friday, the Department of Education said.
This means 16,038,442 or 61.2 percent of the students in the previous academic year are all ready to begin the academic year on Sept. 13.
But it was not clear if all the registered enrollees would be physically present in their respective classes or would be getting lessons online.
Based on its latest data, the DepEd said 10,794,716 students registered in public schools, 671,660 in private schools, and 14,739 in state universities and colleges as well as in local universities and colleges.
At least 4,557,327 students signed up during the early registration for the coming school year.
The region with the most enrollees is Calabarzon with 2,481,554, followed by Central Luzon with 1,591,509 and National Capital Region with 1,577,155.
For the Alternative Learning System, the DepEd said a total 130,418 or 21.76 percent of last year’s students have enrolled so far.
Last school year, when the classes started on October 5, the total number of enrollees was recorded at 24.7 million. This was only 89 percent of the total enrollment during the School Year 2019-2020, according to DepEd.
Likewise, last school year around 398,000 students from private schools transferred to public schools amid the pandemic, the department said.
DepEd earlier proposed to hold a dry run of limited face-to-face classes in 120 schools.
Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said once President Rodrigo Duterte allowed a pilot test, the dry-run would cover 100 public schools and 20 private schools.
“The Department of Health is agreeable to the addition of 20 private schools,” Malaluan said, adding the private schools would be identified after the joint DepEd-DOH guidelines were approved.
The dry run is part of the DepEd’s plan to gradually resume in-person classes despite the pandemic.
In June, Duterte rejected a proposal to allow limited face-to-face classes in 300 public schools nationwide.
“It is difficult. I cannot gamble on the health of the children,” the President said then.
Schools across the country have remained closed since March last year when the pandemic broke out, with learners at the basic education level remaining at home.
DepEd first proposed the pilot testing in low- or no-risk areas in December last year. Duterte initially approved it but in April, withdrew his go-signal amid the surge in cases and the detection of more transmissible variants in the country.