Salustiano Jimenez, Department of Education in Central Visayas director, (left) says that the pandemic has affected 25 private schools in the region, which temporarily stopped their operations.| CDN Digital — Futch Anthony Inso
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) has already recorded 25 basic education private schools in the region that has temporarily stopped their operations for the school year 2020-2021.
Dr. Salustiano Jimenez, regional director of DepEd-7, also said that there was also one school who opted to permanently stop its operations after their enrollment was greatly affected by the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Jimenez, however, urged schools, which temporarily closed, to assist their students in transferring to other schools by providing them with the necessary requirements and documents.
He said this could make the transfer of their students to other schools easier.
“Ang mga bata nila, kinahanglan nga ilang giyahan ug ilahang tabangan para makabalhin sa laing eskwelahan for this school year. Dili nila pasagdan, kay sila man mismo ang ni-opt not to continue this school year,” Jimenez said.
(They should guide and help their students to transfer to other schools for this school year. They should not allow the students to transfer on their own because they [the schools] were the ones who opt not to continue this school year.)
“So ilaha pod nang obligasyon o responsibilidad sa private school to help the parents to transfer (their student) to another school,” he added.
(So it is the obligation and responsibility of the private school to help the parents to transfer [their student] to another school.)
Jimenez also ordered the school, which permanently stopped their operation, to submit the records of their students to the agency.
“But we see to it nga ang mga records sa atong mga bata, once they opted, like for example kaning mo-permanent close na sila, ato gyud ning gi-emphasized sa school administrator to forward the record of their learners to the division office concern, kun diin na ang private school nahimutang. Para kung mangita ug record ang ginikanan, kita makahatag dayon ta kay naa na sa atong kostudiya,” he said.’’
(But we see to it that the records of the students, once they opted out, like for example, the school that decided to permanently close, we emphasized to the school administrator to forward the record of their learners to the concerned division office where the school is located. This is so that if the parents will look for the records of the students, we can easily give these to them because the records are under our custody.)
Private schools enrollment
Read: No major concerns reported during first week of public school classes in CV – Jimenez
Due to temporary closure of these schools and with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jimenez admitted that enrollment in private schools have really declined.
Based on their monitoring, enrollment in public schools has already reached 1,800,883, which is 101.43 percent higher compared to last year’s enrollment.
Meanwhile, in private schools, the agency has only recorded at least 185,000 enrollees, which is only 59 percent compared to last year.
Jimenez, however, said that the enrollees in private schools might still increase, especially since some schools had not submitted yet the number of their enrollees.