Public, private school enrollees now at 24.72M —DepEd

The number of enrollees in private and public schools for the School Year 2020-2021 has reached 24.72 million, the Department of Education said on Saturday.

"As of Friday, we already have 22.5 million public school enrollees, at 'yan po ay humigit kumulang 99.68 percent of the number of enrollees that we've got for SY 2019-2020 na nasa humigit kumulang ay 22,572,923," DepEd Undersecretary Tonisito Umali said at the Laging Handa public briefing.

"Kung isasama ang private school, meron na tayong 2.60 million na naiuulat sa atin, mahigit na po 'yan sa 50 porsyento," he added, with some private schools yet to submit their records on the number of enrollees.

Umali said there are about 400,000 to 450,000 private school learners who enrolled this year in public schools.

"Combined, we already have 24.72 million public and private school enrollees. That's like 89% of the numbers that we had for SY 2019-2020, which is more or less 27.7 million," he said.

Umali said the number is still expected to increase with schools accepting late enrollees.

While the DepEd expected public school enrollees this school year to surpass the 22.57 million figure last school year, Umali however said there might be difficulties in exceeding the 24.72 million public and private school enrollees overall.

"'Yung kabuuan, both public and private kung malalampasan natin yung 27,790,000 more or less public and private school enrollees nu'ng school year 2019 to 2020, baka doon po tayo medyo mahirapan," Umali said.

A simultaneous flag-raising ceremony nationwide will be held at the opening of classes on October 5, he said. —LBG, GMA News