The Office of the Planning Services (OPS) of the Department of Education (DepEd) central office here said the enrollment in Metro Manila’s 476 public elementary schools in school year 2004-2005 is over .40 percent more than last school year’s public grade school population.

Dr. Corazon Santiago, NCR DepEd director, attributed the rise in public elementary school enrollment to the continuous transfer of residence to Metro Manila of many provincial families some of whom came from as far as Mindanao and the Visayas.

Santiago said the increase in public grade school population has been noted in practically all the schools division in NCR. These are the schools division of Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan City, Pasay City, Pasig City, Valenzuela City, Las Piñas City, Mandaluyong City, Muntinlupa City, Taguig, Parañaque City, San Juan, Marikina City, Malabon, and Navotas.

DepEd’s OPS data showed that Grade One registered the biggest umber of enrolled pupils with 2,320,845 followed by Grade Two with 196,923.

The other grade levels and their respective total enrollment in Metro Manila are Grade Three with 185,377; Grade Four, 182,888; Grade Five, 175,940; and Grade Six, 172,027.

According to Santiago, the perennial annual shortage of teachers and classrooms in NCR has been partly remedied by local schools division superintendents and elementary school principals by undertaking various emergency measures.

These, Santiago said, included the adoption of the so-called double-single plan where one teacher handles one class in the morning and another class in the afternoon, increasing the size of classes from the ideal 40 to 60 up to 70 pupils per class, and class shifting where one classroom is alternately utilized by two or more classes in one day.

The DepEd-NCR director said the lack of teachers and classrooms is also being partially resolved by local government executives who hire additional mentors and build additional classrooms using their Local School Board funds.