By Filane Mikee Z. Cervantes
MANILA (PNA) – The implementation of Senior High School (SHS) program sees a historic turnout of enrollees in Grade 11 with less than the usual 50 percent fallout rate, the secretary of Department of Education (DepEd) said.
“Definitely, ang enrollees natin sa Grade 11 will be much, much more than half of the historical numbers that we were seeing when we had fourth year high school,” said Education chief Armin Luistro in a press conference on Monday.
“For the first time in history we have a national database of enrolled Grade 11 students both public and private,” he added.
As of Monday, the DepEd national server has received over 600,000 enrollment lists from more than half of the 11,000 schools offering SHS.
Most of the schools that were not yet able to encode enrollment data are public schools located in remote areas and private schools that will begin the school year in July or August.
However, Luistro said there are at least 1.1 million Grade 11 students already enrolled in various schools offering SHS nationwide.
According to the Education chief, an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 Grade 11 students are enrolled in public schools, while 300,000-400,000 students will pursue senior high in private schools, state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local universities and colleges (LUCs), and technical-vocational institutions.
The number of dropouts, on the other hand, is ranging from 200,000-400,000, which is significantly lower than the 50 percent dropout rate which was recorded in the previous years.
Around 1.5 million students completed Grade 10 in school year 2015-2016.
When asked about the reasons for a higher turnout of enrollees, Luistro said SHS students have a wider range of options, in terms of tracks and schools.
The four tracks offered in SHS include academic, sports, arts and design, and technical-vocational-livelihood.
Furthermore, access to senior high schools are “better this time”, compared to the almost 2,000 higher education institutions available, Luistro noted.
Some 11,000 schools nationwide are SHS-ready. Of this number, 6,002 are public schools operated by DepEd while 5,031 are private schools, private and public universities and colleges, and technical vocational schools.
Senior High School is the last mile of the implementation of the K to 12 program.
The program equips graduate with the knowledge and skills that will help prepare them better for their chosen path, which includes higher education, employment, or entrepreneurship. (PNA)