24.96 million enrolled in first week of classes

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 25 million elementary and high school students have enrolled for school year 2023-2024, based on data released by the Department of Education (DepEd) a week after the official start of classes.

As of 9 a.m. yesterday, the DepEd reported a total of 24,961,439 students enrolled in public and private kindergarten, elementary and high schools, as well as in Philippine schools overseas and under the Alternative Learning System (ALS).

The figure remains below the DepEd’s projection of 28.8 million students for this school year, although the department said schools would continue to accept late enrollees. No date has been set yet for the last day of enrollment.

Region 4-A tallied the most number of enrolled students at 3,692,857, followed by Region 3 at 2,773,588 and Metro Manila at 2,604,947.

Also posting high number of enrollees were Region 7 with 1,931,034; Region 6 with 1,831,839; Region 5 with 1,589,379 and Region 11 with 1,276,904.

A total of 221,392 students signed up under the ALS while 15,483 enrolled in Philippine schools overseas.

A total of 28.4 million students enrolled in public and private schools in the previous school year.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the DepEd over undistributed and improperly stored textbooks and tablets intended for public school students.

In its 2022 annual audit report on DepEd, the COA said its audit team discovered 961,508 pieces of textbooks valued at P36.749 million stocked in a warehouse in DepEd Regional Office (RO) V, even if “delivery documents were already prepared.”

“These TXs (textbooks) for distribution to various schools in RO V were stored in a warehouse and remained undelivered for at least four months to one year, depriving the recipients of the benefits that could have been obtained from the use of the books,” COA said.

Furthermore, the audit body noted that the DepEd RO V logistics warehouse where the textbooks were being stored lacks proper ventilation as well as shelves and security cameras.

“Inside the DepEd Logistics warehouse, there are no close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, no shelves or racks, but only some pallets (customized for the equipment or detached). Small ventilations are also located on the front walls,” the audit report read.

“Although the area was not flooded during the past rainy months, it is still prone to flood during stormy season, exposing the equipment and supplies to the risk of being wet,” it added.

The COA said the DepEd has already agreed to the audit recommendation to instruct RO V to coordinate with the Central Office (CO) to hasten the delivery of the textbooks to the intended Schools Division Offices (SDOs) which shall handle the distribution to the students.

Tablets not distributed

In the same audit report, the COA noted 112,706 pieces of module books valued at P1.085 million and 1,349 units of android tablets valued at P15.986 million remaining undistributed by the SDO of Lanao del Norte under RO X.

Records showed that while the module books were delivered to the SDO of Lanao del Norte on Nov. 15, 2022 and the tablets on Nov. 28, the items were just “placed in the lobby, hallway and open area of the agency.”

“These items were stocked in open spaces while waiting to be released to its recipient users, thus exposing them to possible loss due to theft, fire hazards and other fortuitous events,” the COA said.

“Although there were security guards and CCTV camera in the area, the possibility of loss due to theft is evident, considering that employees, visitors, guests and other people would come and go in the area,” it added.

The COA said the module books are for Filipino, English, Arts, Music and Math.