Enough reason for the national government to take stock of the actual state of Philippine education and adopt immediate remedial measures is the recent data from the Department of Education that enrollment in public and private schools has declined for the past three consecutive years, or from 2020 to 2023.
DepEd reported in School Year 2024-2025, a total 21,563, 642 out of 27,722, 835.
The number is still expected to go up until the end of the enrollment period on Sept. 16, DepEd added..
SY 2024-2025 will end on May 16, 2025.
For SY 2023-2024, there were only 22,917,725 enrollees, which was 5.8 million fewer than the 28,797,660 enrolees for SY 2022-2023.
The steady decline in the number of enrollees in basic education from elementary to high school is really alarming and reflects a serious problem that needs urgent solutions.
One problem is the lack of enough classrooms especially in the rural areas.
This is compounded by the damage wrought by natural calamities like torrential rain that leads to flooding and damage to school facilities.
School facilities are also often used as evacuation centers in the aftermath of typhoons and other natural calamities.
According to DepEd, 12,866 schools were affected by the recent torrential rains and flooding brought by Typhoon Carina.
As of July 27, at least 1,063 schools declared postponement of their class openings initially scheduled for July 29 to allow rehabilitation and cleanup activities.
Last May, the National Economic and Development Authority Board approved the P30.56-billion fund for the repair and rehabilitation of school facilities outside the National Capital Region damaged by recent calamities.
The amount comprises funding for the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools (ISRS) project, which involves the “repair, rehabilitation, retrofitting, and reconstruction” of schools affected by natural disasters from 2019 to 2023.
This project will benefit 282 schools, 4,756 school buildings, 13,101 classrooms, and 741,038 learners.
The perceptible decline in enrollment in basic education may also be traced to poverty.
If poor students have to walk very far to attend classes or cannot afford public transport to go to school, nor afford the necessary school supplies and learning materials, then we have a serious problem indeed in setting national priorities.
Our fundamental law is very clear: “The State shall give priority to education, science and technology, arts, culture and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote total human liberation and development.”
Further on, we have this in the Constitution : “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”
Education for all, in other words, should be the goal, not just for this administration, but also for succeeding ones.
