Enrolment up to over 22M; 99% of schools hold classes

EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara yesterday said 99 percent of schools nationwide have opened their doors to students, adding that enrolment has risen to over 22 million.

Angara said only 673 schools in Luzon have yet to open their classes due to the ongoing repairs and clean-up of debris brought by the onslaught of typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon last week.

“On Monday, there were over 1,000 schools that suspended the opening of classes and that was later increased by local government cancellations. But right now, there are around 600 only. I think that is already 99 percent of schools that opened,” he said.

Of the 673 schools where classes remained suspended, DepEd data showed 356 were in Central Luzon, followed by the National Capital Region (171), Ilocos Region (86), and Calabarzon (60).

There are more than 47,000 public and private kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

Three days after the opening of classes, the number of enrollees in public and private schools nationwide has soared to more than 22 million.

The DepEd said the 22,440,747 enrollees showed an “increase of 877,105 compared to the July 30 data” which has reached 80.94 percent “of our target” number of enrollees.

The department earlier set a target of 27.7 million enrollees this school year.

“We are optimistic in maintaining the momentum in the coming days,” the DepEd added.

Of the more than 22 million enrollees, 12,386,316 are in elementary schools, 6,676,031 in junior high schools, 3,132,880 in senior high schools, and 245,520 in the alternative learning system.

The top five regions with the highest number of learners are Calabarzon with 3,239,173, Central Luzon with 2,364,821, National Capital Region with 2,337,348, Central Visayas with 1,690,090, and Western Visayas with 1,672,752.

The Cordillera Administrative Region has the lowest number of enrollees with only 366,252.

TEXTBOOKS

Angara also said he is looking for ways to fast-track the delivery of textbooks to students.

“I found out that it takes three years to print a book, to deliver a book, because it takes a year to do the manuscript, another year to proofread it, and to send it out. May iba pang bidding