By INA HERNANDO MALIPOT
The private education sector continues to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic with low enrollment which led to the closure of over 800 schools affecting over 60,000 students and teachers.
Data from the Office of Undersecretary for Planning Jesus Mateo showed that as of Oct. 4, there are 860 private schools which suspended their operations for the school year (SY) 2020-2021.
The temporary closure of these schools that are offering basic education programs, DepEd said, affected 56, 448 students and 4, 258 teachers. DepEd noted that there were 14, 435 private schools which operated nationwide in SY 2019-2020.
DepEd said that this data is gathered from various Regional Offices (ROs) and Schools Division Offices (SDOs) which covers all 17 regions.
Of the 860 schools, DepEd data showed that Region 3 (Central Luzon) has the most number of private schools that will stop their operations with 136 followed by Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 136 and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 121.
DepEd data also showed that of the 56, 448 students affected, the highest number is from Calabarzon with 19, 658 followed by Central Luzon with 10, 092 and NCR with 6, 654.
Of the 4, 258 teachers affected, the highest number is from Region 4-A with 858; Region 3 with 822, and NCR with 697.
Mateo had earlier noted that among the reasons cited by the schools for not operating this SY include no or low number of enrollment, unstable financial status of the school, and failure to guarantee the safety of students or school personnel.
Some of the schools, Mateo said, “were not ready” for the school opening because they cannot comply with the requirements set by DepEd on alternative learning delivery modalities. There are also private schools that failed to get permits to operate from DepEd.
DepEd reminded that the numbers of not operating private schools, affected teachers and affected learners are preliminary. “The differences in the numbers indicated in the not operating private schools and affected learners are mainly because only the level of education were closed but the school is still in operation,” it added.
As of Oct. 7, DepEd national enrollment data showed that there are 2.175 million enrollees in private schools for this school year, 50.53 percent of the total private schools enrollment in SY 2019-2021 recorded at 4.3 million.
