Education Secretary Armin Luistro assured Sunday that the country’s public elementary schools and high schools are ready for the start of the new school year Monday and for the 21.49 million students expected to fill campuses nationwide.
 
“As we implement the new K to 12 curriculum for Grade 1 and Grade 7 this school year, we made sure that public elementary and secondary schools across the country are ready for school opening,” Luistro said.
 
Universal kindergarten will also be implemented in the new school year (SY).
 
The Department of Education (DepEd) said it prepared months in advance for the estimated 14 million grade school students, 5.76 million high school students and 1.73 million kindergarten pupils who will enroll in the over 45,000 public schools.


 
Luistro and other DepEd officials had explained over the past several months that the two years the K to 12 program will add to the length of basic education will not yet come this year.
 
He said Grade 11 will come in SY 2016-2017 while Grade 12 the following year.
 
In his State of Basic Education report presented last March, Luistro said K to 12 implementation “will not be perfect” but the DepEd prepared for it by, among others, conducting training sessions for Grade 1 and Grade 7 (formerly first year of high school) teachers during the summer break in April and May. The sessions covered the different subject areas. — ELR, GMA News