Enrollment data still below target as DepEd stops quick count

The number of enrollees for School Year 2023-2024 still remained short of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) 28.8 million target even as the agency already halted its enrollment quick count reporting.

DepEd deputy spokesperson Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said that DepEd has now shifted to reporting of the Beginning of School Year (BOSY) data where the official enrollment number will be obtained.

“Today, we have already opened our LIS (Learning Information System) for the Beginning of School Year input or upload. Ibig sabihin, na-cut na ‘yung reporting natin for quick count [this means that our quick count reporting has been cut],” Bringas said in an interview on PTV.

A total of 26,912,559 learners in public schools, private schools, State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) were enrolled, based on the DepEd’s latest quick count dated September 15.

This was about two million below the agency’s 28.8 million enrollment target for the current school year. Last year, there were 28.4 million enrollees.

Despite this, Bringas said DepEd is still confident that enrollment numbers would still increase as the encoding continues for schools nationwide.

“We are confident na makakapag-reach pa rin tayo ng close to the number that we had last year kasi do’n sa pag-cut ng ating quick count, meron pa tayong several or a number of schools in several regions na hindi pa nakapag-upload ng kanilang quick count report,” he said.

(We are confident that we will still be able to reach close to the number that we had last year because in cutting our quick count, we still have several or a number of schools in some regions that have not yet uploaded their quick count report.)

“Since nakapag-shift na tayo into the BOSY, mawawala na, hindi na sila makakapag-report ng quick count. But we are confident that we will be recovering those numbers by the time na matapos natin ang ating encoding sa system ng ating BOSY report,” he added.

(Since we have shifted into the BOSY, they will no longer be able to report a quick count. But we are confident that we will be recovering those numbers by the time we finish our encoding in the system of our BOSY report.)

DepEd earlier announced that the total number of enrollees for SY 2023-2024 will be determined once the encoding period closes on October 30.

So far, most of the enrollees came from Calabarzon at 3.9 million. This was followed by Central Luzon with 2.9 million, and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 2.7 million.

Bringas previously said schools will employ child-find procedures to identify reasons why some students were not returning to school. — Giselle Ombay/RSJ, GMA Integrated News