The Department of Education (DepEd) officially opened last Sept. 13 the classes in public and private schools nationwide for the school year 2021 to 2022, to include schools in the whole province of Quezon.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said this year's opening of classes is the second "in the time of Covid and a celebration of last school year's success."
Since the outbreak, the DepEd has devised a learning continuity strategy, reducing essential learning competencies from 15,000 to 5,000 and developing modules.
Digital learning tools were developed as face-to-face classes remain suspended due to the threat of more transmissible coronavirus variants.
"We ended the School Year 2020-2021 in victory. Our tentative graduation figures indicated that 98.13 percent or 2,055,499 of 2,115,040 Grade 6 learners made it, and our Grade 10 learners did very well. 96.9 percent or 1,881,817 out of 1,940,578 completed their studies," Briones said.
To date, 24,603,822 million learners have enrolled in private and public schools nationwide.
Based on the latest data from DepEd's Learner Information System Quick Count, about 20,046,495 learners have enrolled and 4,557,327 registered early as of June 2. Meanwhile, 198,297 students have enrolled in the Alternative Learning System.
The education department is encouraged by the enrollment turnout at school opening. The enrollment numbers continue to show an increasing trend. This indicates that last year's students are continuing this year, and those who skipped are returning to their studies.
There is a ray of hope for the economy and the future of the nation when the government pursues the development of education even in the middle of the pandemic.