MANILA -- The Department of Education (DepEd) welcomed on Monday some 27.7 million learners nationwide as the opening of classes for public and private schools went smoothly.
In a press briefing at the Quezon City High School, DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said that the first day of classes is generally smooth based on their monitoring.
"It can be seen in the orderliness displayed by the students who trooped to their respective schools. And we can attribute this not just to Brigada Eswela but also to the early preparations the department had made," Mateo said in Filipino.
Mateo said that the preparation included early registration of students, teachers’ training, school readiness assessment, Brigada Eskwela and Oplan Balik Eskwela.
"Before, students look for their respective classrooms on the first day of classes, but now because of the dry run that we had the students went directly to their classrooms on the opening of classes, the online enrollment starting January helped us estimate the number of learners," he said.
Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said the department was able to meet 97 percent of its goal on classroom and teacher shortage.
"Generally, okay, we've yet to determine because it's just the opening of classes. We’ll have to wait until Friday for the figures to be more or less stabilized and see the status of our classes," she said.
Sevilla said that 85,000 additional classrooms are expected this year since the construction of school buildings is ongoing.
"We did the catching up at the later part of the year so the delivery is not yet complete and the delivery starts by June. Like in some areas, we will have to establish temporary learning spaces to accommodate learners," she said.
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said that DepEd will welcome late enrollees as long as the "learners can substantially catch up with the first quarter requirements."
"There are still some enrollment issues, there are transferees. There are those who are fire victims. Late enrollees will still be accepted, but they have to catch up," he said.
Earlier, DepEd reported that Brigada Eskwela has generated PHP1.121 billion worth of resources while the Public Assistance Command Center has resolved 81 percent of the 2,219 issues and concerns of parents, enrollees and stakeholders received through Oplan Balik-Eskwela. (PNA)
