THE Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd 7) has assured it will accept late enrollees up to one month after school year 2025-2026 has started.
In an interview on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez also said the wearing of school uniforms in public schools will not be mandatory.
Jimenez said public schools are required to accommodate late enrollees before the parents or legal guardians exceed the allowable number of days in the enrollment period or at least 20 percent of the 197 days of academic classes.
“If the student has skipped 20 percent of classes, then, he is considered dropped,” said Jimenez in Cebuano.
Under the DepEd policy, any school can accept enrollment if the learner can complete at least 80 percent of the remaining school days and has passed the quarterly requirement for their grade level.
Jimenez said students considered dropped will be guided to continue their studies through the DepEd’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) Program.
As of Monday, June 16, 12 DepEd divisions of Central Visayas recorded a total of 1,485,000 students enrolled in both public and private schools.
The number is short by 175,000 from the DepEd 7’s target of 1,660,000 enrolled students this school year.
Uniforms
Meanwhile, to address the parents’ concerns regarding children without school uniforms, Jimenez clarified that the wearing of uniforms is not demanded nor required by the DepED.
However, he said, wearing a uniform is important as it helps parents identify their children faster in cases of emergency.
DepEd 7 welcomes sponsorships and support from local government units (LGUs) and barangay officials who may want to shoulder the cost of the uniforms or school supplies.
Following the opening of classes, classroom shortage remains one of the crucial problems of the DepEd 7, Jimenez said.
As of June 3, Jimenez said Cebu Province accounted for the highest shortage in the region, with more than 3,000 classrooms needed.
He attributed the shortage to delays in the construction of new classrooms due to past natural disasters, specifically Typhoon Odette in December 2021, and the inability to fix existing dilapidated classrooms.
Jimenez said to address the problem, school officials have drawn strategies through their respective school improvement plans (SIP). The SIP is a list of school facility problems.
“So the school improvement plan is where classroom shortage is stipulated, and possibly, they will adapt to shifting where one classroom could have two classes, morning and afternoon,” Jimenez explained in Cebuano.
Jimenez has coordinated with Education Secretary Sonny Angara who committed to fast-tracking solutions. Angara promised to prioritize old and dilapidated classrooms. / Ruyz Angela Lois Manacap, CNU Intern