— Students queue to sign up for class at the Sta. Ana National High School in Davao City on Monday. A total of 5,990 public schools plus 5,046 private schools, private and public universities and technical-vocational schools will begin offering Grade 11-12 with the full implementation of the K-12 curriculum this school year.(MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – This year’s school opening is the best so far for Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro, even with the rollout of the senior high school program of the K to 12.
“This year is the best school opening thus far. If there are any other reported problems, agad namin yung naso-solusyunan,” Luistro said on Monday during his visit at the Commonwealth High School in Quezon City with incoming DepEd secretary Leonor Briones.
Based on his monitoring of media reports, Luistro said most of the complaints aired were very much solvable within the day.
“Wala akong nakikitang malawakang problema… Yung aking monitoring ng media reports are really solvable. Madaling tugunan na problema,” he said.
He said that complaints received by their DepEd’s help desk at the the agency’s main office in Pasig City include congestion in some schools and non-enrollment of students.
Luistro said the enrollment of Grade 11 students would be higher by more than 50 percent compared to the number of enrollees for fourth year high school in the past.
He said that more than 600,000 Grade 11 students have enrolled so far, majority of which coming from public schools, based on the DepEd’s national online database.
“Ang enrollees natin sa Grade 11 will be much much more than half ng historical numbers that we are seeing sa fourth year high school. For the first time, we have national database. Ang nae-encode pa lang ay mostly public schools. Kanina nang icheck ko ay more than 600,000,” Luistro said.
He said the number is expected to increase as schools in far-flung areas have yet to transmit data.
Luistro said the DepEd’s target for Grade 11 enrollees remained at 80 percent to 90 percent of those who finished Grade 10 or junior high school.
The DepEd expects to get the final number of Grade 11 enrollees this coming Friday. (MNS)