Department of Education (DepEd) urges more learners in Central Luzon to enroll for the upcoming School Year (SY) 2021-2022.
As of September 7, the enrollment figure in the region based on the Learner Information System (LIS) – Quick Count showed that only 1,854,717 learners enrolled so far in public schools, private schools and state universities and colleges/local universities and colleges that offer basic education. This is only 66 percent of the projected enrollment in the region, which is 2,699,515 learners.
From the figure, Grade 1-6 has the most enrollees at 742,018 or 49%. This was followed by Grade 7-10— 484,815 or 33%; Grade 11-12— 178,769 or 12%; and Kinder— 97,313 or 6%.
Policy, Planning and Research Division Chief Matrose Galarion clarified that DepEd is expecting more enrollees in the coming days.
“Many have been enrolled but are still not included in the LIS. Because of our current situation where it is difficult for teachers to get out, we have put drop boxes in barangays and schools. These forms still need to be given to class advisers for encoding. This is why encoding take times, because we can’t risk the safety of our teachers,” Galarion said.
Also, the official explained that the decrease in the number of enrollees is because of adjustments made.
“We [DepEd] made some allowance considering our current situation. Instead of having 100% projection based on the previous school year, we made an allowance of 80%. We consider only 80% of our learners will enroll because of the pandemic and other reasons,” she said.
Despite this, Galarion assured that DepEd will continuously monitor the schools with their encoding in the LIS and inform teachers to tap the assistance of LIS coordinators to speed up the updating of database for enrollment.
Galarion said the deadline for enrollment is initially until September 13, 2021, but will extend this in consideration of the pandemic.
“We will be more lenient in accepting enrollees even if the classes have already started. The percentage of attendance of the student is what really matters now, so we will be accepting learners until the first quarter of the upcoming school year,” she said.
DepEd, through its Public Affairs Unit, will continue to communicate to the stakeholders and parents about the enrollment process.
The OPLAN BALIK ESKWELA Public Assistance Command Center of DepEd Region 3 is also fully operational. For queries and concerns about the enrollment or other services, the public may contact them through their telephone number 5988580 – 89, or their mobile number 09685201489. (CLJD/MJSC/PIA-3 with reports from Bryan Tungol and Robby Lalu, Interns)