MANILA, Philippines — Around 380,000 students have transferred from private institutions to public schools for the upcoming school year in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, according to an official of the Department of Education (DepEd).
During Wednesday’s (August 12, 2020) hearing of the Senate basic education committee, DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the enrollment rate for private schools will likely not reach the level that it was last year.
Based on the latest figures from DepEd, over 1.56 million students have enrolled in private schools as of Wednesday morning. During the previous school year, there were over 4.3 million enrollees in private institutions.
“We hope that this will still increase but expectedly it will not be nearer the level [of] the enrollment rate that has happened in the private sector [last year],” Malaluan said.
“We have also monitored that there are 380,000 or so learners from the private schools that we have monitored having transferred to the public schools” he added.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones earlier attributed the transfer of private school learners to public schools to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
“We now have what I describe as the phenomenon of private school students migrating to the public school,” Briones had said.
“This is because the private schools have been affected by the downturn in the economy, there are parents who lost their jobs and cannot already fund the studies of the students,” she added.
Classes are set to resume on August 24 under a distance learning set-up as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
DepEd has been preparing for blended learning, which is a combination of online distance learning and in-person delivery of learning materials to the homes of the learners for the reopening of classes.
Teaching with the use of radio and television will also be done for students who do not have access to a computer or the internet.