CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga (PIA) — Department of Education (DepEd) Central Luzon cited its readiness for the opening of school year 2023-2024 on August 29.
This, as DepEd Region III registered a total number of 1,926,844 enrollees in all sectors as of August 22, or 65 percent of last year’s enrollment.
Of the total number, 1,690,107 are enrolled in public schools; 234,643 in private schools; and 2,094 in state/local universities and colleges.
DepEd Regional Director May Eclar said that from May 10 to June 9, DepEd has conducted pre-registration for Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7, and 11 learners in the 3,706 public elementary and high schools in the region.
“This allowed the department to make necessary preparations and adjustments in our plans for the incoming school year. Through this, we saw the necessary preparations that we have to undertake in terms of basic education inputs like classrooms, learning materials, teachers, and other educational inputs,” she said.
Meanwhile, the director said that other grade levels were not required to participate in the early registration, but have to confirm their registration because they still need to enroll which started on August 7 and should end on August 26.
Aside from registration and enrollment, DepEd also kicked off its annual Brigada Eskwela last August 7 as an appeal to the Bayanihan spirit of every Filipino to help prepare schools for the opening of classes.
Apart from ensuring clean, safe, inclusive, and child friendly learning environment, the activity aims to guide schools in sustaining partnership engagement activities with various sectors.
“This year, the difference is the removal of the competition aspect relative to the conduct of Brigada Eskwela. This is to emphasize the true bayanihan spirit of volunteerism. Schools, districts, and divisions may still give recognition to partners and stakeholders that participated in the Brigada Eskwela. This move is to prevent the schools, especially our school heads, teachers, and other personnel from holding solicitations to raise contributions for the conduct of its Brigada Eskwela activities,” Eclar said.
With this, the director thanked all their partners as she shared that the total amount of donations this year for DepEd Central Luzon reached P67,388,742.07 which benefitted 750,524 learner beneficiaries.
“Because of their [donors and partners’] genuine concern, our students received various aids such as reading materials, vitamins, classroom chairs, ICT and classroom instructional equipment, health and wellness materials and sessions,” she said.
Also, part of the readiness measures of DepEd to ensure smooth opening of classes is the activation of the Oplan Balik Eskwela – Public Assistance Command Center (OBE-PACC) to cater to parents and students’ queries and concerns relative to the opening of the school year. (MJSC-PIA 3)
