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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider COVID-19 prompts DepEd to lower enrollment projection this school year

COVID-19 prompts DepEd to lower enrollment projection this school year

Published Jul 1, 2020 09:18 pm

Due to COVID-19 crisis, the Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday said that it has set a lower enrollment projection for the coming school year (SY) 2020-2021.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones (SCREENSHOT / RTVM / MANILA BULLETIN)
Education Secretary Leonor Briones (SCREENSHOT / RTVM / MANILA BULLETIN)

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in an online press conference, explained that DepEd has anticipated the decrease in the participation rate this SY due to the impacts of COVID-19 in the economy and in the families who send their children to private schools.

For this SY, DepEd’s projection is 80 percent of the 27.7 million enrollment last year or about 22 million, Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said. Given this, around 5 million learners are expected to stay out of school this school year.

“Even in our initial projections, we have projected that we will not reach the 27 million mark because of the impact on the economic situation – we’re having negative growth this year and maybe for the following year,” Briones explained.

Mateo said the lower enrollment projection this SY 2020-2021 is in anticipation of the impact of COVID-19 on the learners and their families. “When the economy is affected, income is also so the projection on how many will go back to schools will also be affected,” he explained.

Latest national enrollment data from DepEd showed that as of July 1, the total enrollment is 16.6 million, which is 59.81% of total enrollment last school year.

“Our indicative enrollment data is in public schools,” Briones said. “The total enrollment as reported is now at 15.8 million, representing 70.38% of the total 22.5 million enrollment in public schools for SY 2019-2020,” she added.

The total number of enrollment in private schools is 706, 934. Briones noted that “not all private schools have conducted enrollment simultaneous with the DepEd schedule, and private schools reporting has significant lag even under normal conditions.”

Briones said the impact on the economy is a very big factor for parents who send their children to private schools. “A big part of it is the state of the economy of which the DepEd has no control of. But we’re monitoring this very carefully,” she said.

Despite this, Briones said that “we strongly encourage that we should retain the balance between public and private education because the complementarity” is stated in the Constitution.

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