THE Department of Education yesterday said the number of enrollees has surpassed 24 million, adding that all 47,000-plus public and private elementary and secondary schools in the country are now fully operational.
Data provided by DepEd showed that as of August 6, a week after the opening of classes, the number of enrollees stood at 24,178,797, which is 87.22 percent of the target 27,722,835 learners this current school year.
DepEd said 13,426,294 are enrolled in elementary schools, 7,091,459 in junior high schools, 3,370,583 in senior high schools, and 290,462 in the alternative learning system.
Calabarzon remained the region with the highest number of enrollees at 3,516,873, followed by Central Luzon (2,557,435), National Capital Region (2,489,997), Central Visayas (1,848,944) and Western Visayas (1,784,028).
The Cordillera Administrative Region has the lowest number of enrollees with only 397,539.
The DepEd said all schools in the country are now open and fully operational after close to a thousand suspended opening classes due to the damage wrought by typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon.
“Open na po lahat ng schools nationwide today. Wala na din pong schools na ginagamit as evacuation center. Back to normal operations na po lahat,” the DepEd said in a message to reporters.
Of the 979 schools that suspended the opening of classes last week, DepEd data showed 225 were in the National Capital Region, 231 in the Ilocos region, 452 in Central Luzon, 67 in Calabarzon, and four in Western Visayas.
At least 246 schools were flooded at the height of Carina’s onslaught while 425 were used as evacuation centers.
