MANILA, Philippines – It's that time of the year again.
Students in public elementary and high schools nationwide may start registering for school year 2016-2017 on Saturday, January 30, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced recently.
In a department order issued on Tuesday, January 26, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the goal of early registration is to "achieve universal participation and completion of the cycle."
With a massive advocacy campaign from January 30 to February 29, DepEd hopes to track children and young people and bring them back to school.
These are the department's targets for next school year:
- Enroll all 5-year-old children in kindergarten
- Reach out to out-of-school children and out-of-school youth and locate, identify, and enroll them
- Understand barriers to access to education and identify local solutions or interventions to bring learners to school, ensuring they do not drop out.
During DepEd's Kapihan on Thursday, January 28, Education Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo emphasized the need to reach out to the "last milers," including children with disabilities, and those in difficult situations and disadvantaged areas.
Early registration for SHS
Mateo said incoming Grade 11 students can also register, but the focus of the early registration will be students entering kindergarten, and grade levels 1 to 10.
The national early registration for the K to 12 program's senior high school (SHS) happened in 2015, from October 19 to November 13. (READ: 2015: Protest against K to 12 at its loudest, reaches the Supreme Court)
"Kaya natin ginagawa early registration kasi kailangang bigyan ng panahon ang ating mga paaralan para magprepara, hindi 'yung magugulat na lang 'pag pasukan na," Mateo explained.
(We conduct early registration because we need to give schools time to prepare so there won't be surprises with the number of enrollees on the first day of school.)
Over 21 million students enrolled in public schools for school year 2015-2016, while DepEd estimates around 1.2 million to 1.6 million students will enter senior high school's Grade 11 in June.
DepEd's estimate is close to the initial number of registrants for senior high school: 1.3 million students, majority or 1.1 million of whom are currently enrolled in public schools.
EARLY REGISTRATION FOR SHS
1.3 million registrants
878,000 in public SHS
438,000 in private SHS
59% in academic track
40% in tech-voc track
1% in arts and design, sports tracks
Of the 1.1 million, Mateo said 76% will remain in public schools, while 24% will go to private schools.
"'Yung pumunta ng private senior high school, ['yun ay] dahil 'yung track na gusto nila, hindi in-offer sa school na pinanggalingan nila (For those who will go to private senior high schools, the reason they're transferring is because the track they want will not be offered by their current school)," the assistant secretary explained.
About 172,000 students in private schools also registered for senior high school last year, but only 5.7% will go to public schools, while the rest will remain in private schools.
As for returning learners or those who graduated from the previous 10-year circle, around 17,165 want to enter Grade 11 this June.
Majority or 10,500 of the returning learners are interested to pursue the technical-vocational-livelihood track, 6,580 are interested in the academic track, and the remaining 85 are interested in the arts and design and sports tracks.–Rappler.com