Schools open with nearly 23 million enrollees

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 29) — The Department of Education (DepEd) saw nearly 23 million enrollees on Aug. 29, the first day of the school year 2023-2024.

As of 9:05 a.m. on Tuesday, the DepEd reported 22,917,725 students have enrolled in public and private schools, state universities and colleges, as well as local universities and colleges, including Philippine schools overseas.

Most enrollees come from the region of Calabarzon with almost 3.5 million students, followed by Central Luzon with at least 2.6 million students, and the National Capital Region with nearly 2.5 million enrollees.

The latest enrollment figure is more than five million fewer than the 28.8 million recorded last year when the country resumed in-person classes after two years of distance learning due to the pandemic.

According to the DepEd, it is still too early to conclude that the number of enrollees has declined for the current school year.

“As per the trend in the past years, our final number for enrollment only comes in after two weeks because that is the time our schools have completed their uploading of their enrollment data into our learner info system,” DepEd Asec. Francis Bringas said.

The department expressed optimism that the number would continue to rise, especially as schools accommodate late enrollees.