WE ARE already entering the fourth week of June and based from Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 11, June 22 is the designated date that the teachers will be reporting physically to their respective schools but shall observe health and safety protocols and also depend on the situation or level of the community quarantine being implemented.
This is also the last week of enrolment and second week where parents will be enrolling their children with the use of drop boxes and kiosks and other means especially with areas that have difficulty getting internet and mobile phone signals.
As of this writing based from the DepEd report on Friday, more than 12 million learners in the basic education level from both public and private schools have already enrolled for the incoming School Year (SY) 2020-2021,
It was reported that on the third week of the month-long enrollment this June, DepEd national data for SY 2020-2021 as of June 20 showed that the total number of enrollees has reached 13,253,716 nationwide for Kindergarten to Grade 12 in both formal and informal education systems.
It can be recalled that since June 1, the DepEd has implemented remote enrollment through alternative means of communication that do not require physically reporting to schools, such as text, call, email, and online messaging.
As stated in DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2020 entitled “Guidelines on Enrolment for School Year 2020-2021 in the Context of the Public Health Emergency Due to Covid-19” that on June 16, DepEd also opened drop boxes and kiosks in barangay halls and schools, where parents who do not have access to remote means of communication may pick up or drop off the Learner Enrollment and Survey Form.
Of the total number reported, there are 12,786,022 learners enrolled in public schools and 458,320 have registered in private schools.
Moreover, the national enrollment data covers public and private schools as well as State Universities and Colleges and Local Universities and Colleges and learners across all basic education level including Kindergarten, Elementary or Grades 1 to 6, Junior High School (JHS) or Grades 7 to 10, and Senior High School or Grades 11 and 12. Also included are non-graded learners with disabilities and those under the Alternative Learning System program.
As we approached the last week of enrolment with massive information campaign being done using all available media and the various orientation conducted to drumbeat the rise of enthusiasm of both parents and learners to enroll for SY 2020-2021, this Corner hopes that the target enrollees based on the data of last year’s population will be reached.
According to the report, DepEd is now doing all possible means to meet the deadlines of all targeted deliverables before the opening of classes so that the Learning Continuity Plan from Central, Region, Division, and School levels will be realized for the benefit of the learners.