THE Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City fell short of its target number of enrollees for school year 2020-2021.

DepEd Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud said her office recorded 169,467 enrollees after enrollment closed on Friday, July 31, 2020.

Their target was a two-percent increase from the 178,000 students who enrolled last year, she said.

Angtud said the National Government had mandated distance learning as the new platform, whether online or offline, to protect teachers and students from getting infected with the coronavirus disease 2019.

“Meaning, we will have virtual and printed modules,” she said.

She said the modules for the first quarter of classes are already available at the Learning Resource Portals. These can be accessed and downloaded by teachers.

The training and the dry run for the online platform have been completed.

Angtud said the education office is collating issues and concerns raised and experienced during the dry run so these can be addressed. She did not say what these are.

For the printed modules, the DepEd Cebu City aims to complete these by Aug. 15, she said.

She said they expect challenges in the implementation of the new setup of classes.

“This is something wala pa ta kasulay (that we haven’t tried before). So, as to readiness, we are ready as far as what we had anticipated it to be,” Angtud said. “We really cannot say in all honesty that it will be perfect.” (JJL)