No extension for public school enrollment period: DepEd

MANILA — The Department of Education said Tuesday it would not extend the enrollment period in public schools as it reported over 21.2 million registered learners so far for the coming school year.

DepEd Spokesperson Michael Poa said the deadline for enrollment in public schools is still on Aug. 22, also the first day of classes.

"Sa ngayon, wala tayong extension [ng enrollment period] na napag-uusapan," he said in a televised public briefing.

(For now, we have not talked about giving an extension for the enrollment period.)

As of Tuesday morning, 21,272,820 learners have enrolled in basic education for School Year 2022-2023, according to DepEd data.

The figure is still around 7 million short of the DepEd's target of 28.6 million learners.

Of the total, 18.7 million are enrolled in public schools while 2.4 million are in private schools. Some 71,900 students, meanwhile, will be attending state and local universities and colleges offering basic education.

Calabarzon led the regions with the most enrollees at 3 million, followed by Central Luzon (2.3 million) and the National Capital Region (2.2 million), DepEd data showed.

Other regions that logged over a million enrollees include Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao, and Davao Region.

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Video courtesy of PTV

Poa said enrollment was a "major concern" among those who reached out to the DepEd's Public Assistance Command Center, which was launched on Monday.

"Ang pinakamaraming concern sa enrollment is 'yong pagta-transfer mula sa private school papunta sa public school, so ini-inform lang natin ang ating callers sa mga dapat nilang gawin at procedures sa paglipat," Poa said.

(Many of the concerns on enrollment is about the procedure in transferring from a private to public school, so we just inform our callers about what they should do and the procedures in transferring.)

• Hotlines launched to address school opening concerns

For the coming academic year, schools will be allowed to implement distance or blended learning until Oct. 31. By November, all schools are required to shift to in-person classes.

Poa said schools in northern Luzon have started constructing temporary learning spaces after sustaining damage from the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck the area last July 27.

Earthquake-affected schools can also implement distance learning, Poa said.