Senior high school enrolment reaches 1.3 M

MANILA, Philippines – Enrolment in Grade 11 which starts this year has reached 1.3 million, or around 90 percent of over 1.4 million students who completed junior high school in March, data from the Department of Education (DepEd) showed.

As of 10 a.m. yesterday, DepEd’s learner information system showed that 1,300,020 students had enrolled in public and private senior high schools across the country.

A total of 744,875 are enrolled in public schools, while 530,802 are enrolled in private institutions offering senior high school programs.

Another 24,343 are enrolled in state and local colleges and universities that are offering Grade 11 this school year.

DepEd earlier said the number of students is expected to continuously increase as there are schools that will start classes only in August.

The latest figures released by the agency surpassed initial estimates of Education Secretary Armin Luistro, who said during the opening of classes that between 200,000 to 400,000 students may not proceed to senior high school.

“If we finish the registration, I think we will be at an all-time high in the number of fourth year high school completers or their equivalent taking on another year or two of education,” Luistro said.

He ordered school officials to locate students who have yet to enroll in Grade 11.

DepEd Assistant Secretary for curriculum and instruction Elvin van Uy said they are aiming to achieve 100 percent enrolment or as close to that as possible.

Incoming Secretary Leonor Briones said they plan to strengthen the agency’s alternative learning program to reach out to those who have dropped out of school.