Dr. Salustiano Jimenez, regional director of DepEd-7. CDN Digital photo | Futch Anthony Inso
CEBU CITY, Philippines — At least 500,000 public school students in the region have already enrolled for the incoming school year 2021-2022, the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) revealed.
Salustiano Jimenez, DepEd-7 Director, told CDN Digital in an interview that they had been accommodating early enrolment since March this year.
Though he could not give the exact number yet, Jimenez said more or less 500,000 learners were enrolled in Central Visayas as of mid-July, from kindergarten to Grade 12.
“When we had the early enrolment last March, whenever parents and/or guardians enrolled their children, we accommodate,” he added.
DepEd Central Office on Friday, July 16, announced that President Rodrigo Duterte approved September 13, 2021, the opening date for the next school year.
This will give students a two-month break from blended learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the education department has yet to release the school calendar.
READ: School year 2021-2022 to open on September 13 – DepEd
Jimenez earlier urged school divisions to come up with other learning modalities to supplement modular printed materials.
The regional director admitted that there were reported delays in the distribution of modules in some school divisions for the school year 2020-2021, which ended on July 10.
He said this could be because everyone was still adjusting to the demands and challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ: DepEd-7 urges school divisions to come up with other modalities
Meanwhile, on June 23, DepEd announced that private schools and non-DepEd public schools may start their classes provided that there are not face-to-face classes and that the school will be strictly implementing only distance learning modalities. /rcg
READ: DepEd: Private schools may now start classes for S.Y. 2021-2022