DepEd to accept late enrollees until November 21

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) said Monday that students may still enroll for the School Year (SY) 2020-2021 until November 21.

“Lilinawin natin kasi ayon sa ating Department Order No. 3 series of 2018, tatanggap pa tayo ng late enrollees hanggang November 21, 2020,” Education Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said during DepEd’s program on the official opening of the school year on October 5.

(According to Department Order No. 3 series of 2018, we will still accept late enrollees until November 21, 2020.)

Based on the order, “a school may accept late enrollees provided that the learner will be able to meet eighty percent (80%) of the prescribed number of school days for each school year and the quarterly requirement to pass the grade level as governed by the latest existing applicable DepEd issuances.”

Mateo explained that DepEd has set this deadline as students may find it hard to catch-up with the lessons they missed at the start of classes if the date will be adjusted further.

He then advised parents and guardians of students to not wait until November 21 before they allow children to avail of late enrollment.

“‘Wag natin hintayin ang November 21, ‘yung pinaka-last day. Ngayon pa lang po, nakikiusap kami, papasukin n’yo na. Anyway, wala naman pong face-to-face eh. Meron po tayong iba-ibang modalities,” he said.

(Let us not wait until November 21, the very last day. We appeal to you to enroll them now. Anyway, there are no face-to-face classes. We have different modalities for learning.)

Data from DepEd as of Sunday showed that 24.75 million students have enrolled for SY 2020-2021, representing 89 percent of last year’s 27.85 million registered students.