MERELY 10 days before the school year 2021-2022 starts, enrollment for private and public basic education institutions in Central Visayas is only about 1.4 million.
This is at least 600,000 short of the two million enrollment target of the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 for the incoming school year.
DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez said they have the same target as the previous school year.
“We continue to disseminate information that enrollment is still ongoing because as of yesterday (Sept. 4, 2021), our enrollment is still at 1.4 million (in both public and private schools),” Jimenez said in a mix of English and Cebuano in a phone interview on Sunday, Sept. 5.
As the DepEd 7 continues to encourage parents and guardians to have their children enrolled, Jimenez said parents need not worry about submitting papers such as birth certificates and other credentials, especially for transferees, during enrollment as these can just be submitted later, when the classes have started.
Jimenez said just like in the previous school year, the DepEd 7 still employs various modalities for enrollment—utilizing modern communication such as Facebook Messenger and short message service (text messages), or using the old school drop boxes in schools, barangay halls and purok centers.
Brigada Eskwela
Jimenez said last school year’s system of Brigada Eskwela is being implemented this year, and this is done by letting schools prepare a list of their needs that could serve as a guide for local government units and non-government organizations (NGOs) should they opt to extend assistance.
Some NGOs also conduct an “Adopt a School’’ program in which they choose certain schools as the beneficiaries of their community outreach. Often the NGO volunteers repaint classrooms, repair broken chairs or desks, and repair ceilings and fences.
The Brigada Eskwela for this year started last Aug. 2.
Pending the announcement from the Office of the President on the proposed pilot implementation of the limited face-to-face classes amid the pandemic, Jimenez said the DepEd 7 will continue to utilize for the incoming school year the blended modalities of learning by using a combination of any of these: radio-based instruction, TV-based instruction, modular printed, and the digitized modules.
Jimenez said the required modules for the first quarter of the incoming school year were already set, and these were checked for any error as there were reports of erroneous modules in other regions in the country.
He said most schools will reuse their modules from the last school year so they only have to produce answer sheets.
Teachers were also given virtual in-service training and webinars to reorient them for the upcoming school year. Moreover, though he was not able to provide the exact number, he said the majority of private schools in Central Visayas have started their school year ahead of Sept. 13. (WBS)