MORE than 1.8 students in elementary and high school in Central Visayas are expected to attend classes on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022, the first day of School Year (SY) 2022-2023.Majority of the schools under the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 are all set for the opening of classes.“All on the go. Our schools, based on the reports of all our superintendents, [are] ready for [the] … opening of classes and we do hope and pray that everything will be smooth and orderly,” DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez told SunStar Cebu on Sunday, Aug. 21.Jimenez said the number of enrollees in Central Visayas’ public and private schools had already reached more than 1.8 million, including almost 200,000 students enrolled in private schools as of Friday, Aug. 19.DepEd 7 has a target of two million enrollees for SY 2022-2023.Salustiano, however, said there are still about 141 schools that have not yet encoded their enrollment data, particularly those in rural areas and private schools.Central Visayas has about 3,000 public schools in 20 divisions, while 892 private schools are left after some reportedly halted their operations amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.Jimenez urged parents or guardians to enroll their children this Monday, which is the last day for enrollment, adding that the number of enrollees would also serve as basis for the department’s budget for 2023.Jimenez said they will still accept late enrollees, especially those with valid reasons, such as circumstances that prompted the learners to transfer to another school.He, however, clarified that the number of days that learners missed in school should not exceed 20 percent of the total number of school days.ScheduleDepEd Order 034, series of 2022, sets the start of classes on Aug. 22 and the school year’s end on July 7, 2023.Schools are given time to slowly transition to five days of face-to-face classes through blended learning modality: three days of in-person classes and two days of distance learning modalities.However, the order states that all public and private schools must move to five days face-to-face classes starting Nov. 2.“Face masks shall be mandatory in the re-opening of classes. A face shield may be used in lieu of a face mask for activities requiring the entire face of an individual to be visible,” read a part of the guidelines.The other provisions include that “physical distancing shall be observed whenever possible; classroom doors and windows shall be opened for ventilation.”Lapu-Lapu’s prepIn a separate interview, Dr. Reynold Velos, chief of the School Governance and Operations Division in Lapu-Lapu City, said all their schools are set for face-to-face classes, although he admitted that they still lack classrooms.Apart from that, some classrooms that were damaged during the onslaught of Typhoon Odette (Rai) are still ongoing repairs, he said.To address the shortage, Velos said they will conduct classes in shifts, dividing the total number of students into two sections (one in the morning and the other in the afternoon).He said all students can join face-to-face classes, but stressed that only few schools can hold five-day in-person classes.Velos said they will set aside at least one day for students to undergo psychosocial activities during the first week of face-to-face classes.“Dili gyud ingon mo-klase gyud dayon (Students won’t be hitting the books immediately),” said VelosBased on the Learner Information System (LIS) Quick Count, at least 101,014 students have so far been enrolled in public schools in Lapu-Lapu City as of Aug. 21.Of the number, 58,534 are enrolled in Kindergarten to Grade 6 while about 34,222 in Grade 7 to Grade 10 and 8,258 in Grade 11 to 12.Lapu-Lapu City has 81 public schools, 44 of which are elementary; and 27 and 10 are junior high and senior high schools, respectively.A total of 19,441 students have also been enrolled in private schools, wherein 5,845 are enrolled in Kindergarten to Grade 6; 3,617 in Grade 7 to 10; and 9,978 in Grade 11 to 12.The city has 70 private schools that will continue to operate for SY 2022-2023.