By Ina Hernando Malipot
The Department of Education is anticipating around 28 million learners trooping back to public and private elementary and secondary schools once the School Year 2018-2019 formally opens.
Data from the DepEd Planning and Programming Division as of May 10 showed that the projected number of enrollees for the incoming school year is 27, 757, 546 in public schools, private schools, and State Universities and Colleges and Local Universities and Colleges.
DepEd data showed that the anticipated enrollment this school year is 2, 949, 870 for kindergarten; 13, 867, 819 for elementary (Grades 1-6); 8, 126, 239 for junior high school (Grades 7-10), and 2, 813, 618 for senior high school (Grades 11-12).
In public schools, classes will open on June 4.
Private schools may deviate from the DepEd schedule but they should not start classes earlier than the first Monday of June and not later than the last day of August as provided for in Republic Act No. 7797 entitled “An Act to Lengthen the School Calendar from Two Hundred (200) Days to not more than Two Hundred Twenty (220) Class Days.”
They should notify their regional offices in advance regarding any deviation.
In the past school year 2017-2018, DepEd said that 26.3 million learners enrolled in public and private schools, 5.6 percent higher than the previous year’s enrollment. With 641, 584 enrollees in the Alternative Learning System, a total of 26.9 million learners were served by DepEd last school year.
Meanwhile, DepEd revealed that the school participation rate for its early registration program for school year 2018-2019 has “hit a very high record” compared to the previous years of implementation.
