MORE than 300,000 students availed themselves of the early registration program of the Department of Education (DepEd) Central Visayas six months before the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Dr. Salustriano Jimenez, DepEd 7 director, told SunStar Cebu that even before June 1 enrollment they already conducted early registration of incoming students for School Year 2020-2021.
Around 321,000 students or 57 percent of total enrollees in the previous school year availed themselves of DepEd 7’s early registration program.
Around 565,000 students enrolled for School Year 2019-2020, Jimenez added.
Most of the students who availed themselves of DepEd’s early registration program are from Kindergarten and Grades 1, 2 and 11.
Jimenez said he has yet to receive reports on how many students officially enrolled in the region’s 19 school divisions.
Pursuant to DepEd Order No. 008, which sets the guidelines for the month-long enrollment period, Jimenez said school divisions gave the parents two options to enroll their child--either through remote enrollment like phoning in their intent for enrollment or through physical appearance in school to enroll in coordination with their barangay.
Jimenez said that despite fears of some parents that Covid-19 could affect the incoming school year, they do not expect that the number of enrollees to go down this year.
“We are even thinking of an increase in the number of enrollees by at least two percent, which we will use as the basis for the volume of educational materials our students will need. If we allot less and the number of enrollees exceeds our expectation, we would lack educational materials,” he added, in Cebuano. (JKV)