There is no need to extend the enrollment period for the upcoming school year because schools would still accept late enrollees until September, according to an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) this Thursday.
According to DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo, the acceptance of late enrollees is stated in the Department Order 13 Series of 2018. The official enrollment, which began in June, ended yesterday, July 15.
“Doon sa polisiya, nakalagay doon, at least 80 percent of calendar days. Pero kung i-o-operationalize mo yun, kung nagbukas tayo ng August 24, pupuwede pa hanggang September tatanggapin,” Mateo explained in an interview with ABS-CBN TeleRadyo.
(There in the policy, it says, at least 80 percent of calendar days. But if you operationalize that, if we open August 24, we could still accept until September.)
According to Mateo, the enrollment period was also accompanied by a survey.
“Yung survey po, ginamit natin yung impormasyon para sa ganun mapaganda pa natin yung basic education learning continuity plan,” he said.
(We used the information from the survey so that we can improve the basic education learning continuity plan.)
Aside from the official enrollment period, DepEd also conducted early registration in January, before having a COVID-19 pandemic started.
Also read: DepEd: 250,000 students from private schools transferred to public
“Sa tala natin, as of 5:30 yesterday, nasa 20.7 million na po tayo, total. 19.62 million dito sa public, samantalang 1 million nasa private,” Mateo said about the number of enrollees for School Year 2020-2021.
(According to our records, as of 5:30 yesterday, we are at a total of 20.7 million. 19.62 million here in public, while 1 million in private.)
He reminded that public schools that want to pursue enrollment should not reject students.
The class is set to open in public schools on August 24, where various teaching methods will be used, such as blended learning, as traditional face-to-face education is not yet allowed during the pandemic.