A DEPARTMENT of Education-Davao Region (DepEd-Davao) official said private schools in the region observe an increase in enrollment for the upcoming school year 2023-2024.
“We are increasing specifically after pandemic ni-increase ta (we have an increase in enrollment), what is very good is that we are also seeing very good effects on private school sector,” DepEd-Davao spokesperson Jenielito Atillo said in a press conference on July 20.
Atillo said that compared to the pandemic times, the enrollment numbers in private schools had been “normalized”.
The official also hopes to have a very good number of learners for the school year 2023-2024 for both private and public schools in the region.
Aside from an increase in enrollment, Atillo said there are “three or four” schools which signified that they cannot go back to their normal operations from the school year 2020-2021.
“Naa na lang mi mga tulo, upat out from the original 44 na nag-voluntary close adtong 2020 to 2021 [school year] (From 44 schools which voluntarily closed in SY 2020-2021, now we only have around three to four schools which signified that they cannot go back to their normal operations),” Atillo said.
However, Atillo said DepEd-Davao had to finalize the data for private schools enrollment for the school year 2023-2024.
Meanwhile, based on DepEd-Davao’s data for public schools across Davao Region, Atillo shared that there were 57,581 early registrants for Kindergarten, 85,887 for Grade 1, 66,694 for Grade 7, and 56,976 for Grade 11. In total, there were approximately 267,138 students who registered early for the school year ahead, as of June 2023.
DepEd aims to open classes on August 29, 2023 after the National Learning Camp (NLC), Oplan Balik Eskwela, and Brigada Eskwela.
However, Atillo clarified that the possible return of classes in June will be unlikely because the schedule cannot be easily adjusted due to the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the scheduling process. (ICE)