BY NOEL TALACAY
THE Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday said the 80% target number of enrollees for the coming school year has been reached as public and private schools continue to accept enrollees until September.
The DepEd’s national enrolment data showed that as July 30, some 22,360,089 students have enrolled in public and private schools, including state universities and colleges (SUCs), which is equivalent to 80.4% of the 27 million enrollees last year.
Of the total, 20,952,512 are enrolled in public schools or 92.8% of the total number of enrollees in 2019 (22,572,923).
Out of those who had enrolled in public schools, 400,613 are transferees from private schools and SUCs, composed of 245 in the elementary level, 106,660 in junior high school, 41,574 in senior high school, and 6,501 learners with disabilities (non-graded).
A day before the month ended, 1,373,362 enrolled in private schools and SUCs, representing just 31.9% of last year’s total number of enrollees.
The department’s Learning Enrolment Survey form (LESF) showed that 8.8 million parents prefer modular learning where teachers and students will use printed materials and digital format materials like CDs, DVDs, laptops, computers, tablets and smart phones. There were 3.9 million parents who wanted blended learning, a combination of different kinds of learning delivery mode such as online, modular, and TV/radio-based instructions, while 3.8 million parents prefer online education, the mode of teaching where students and teachers will use new technologies that have internet access.
A total of 1.4 million parents want to use television as a learning modality; 900,000 parents want radio-based instruction; and around half a million preferred other modalities.
