Shekinah Jedidiah Alima

The Department of Education announced that six million students are not yet enrolled for the school year 2024-2025 as of 9:00 a.m. on July 30. 

Photo Courtesy of Jilson Tiu.

According to the latest data, only 21,563,642 students, or 77.8% of the targeted 27,722,835 came back to school for the opening of classes on Monday.

This enrollment figure includes enrollees from public and private schools, state universities and colleges, and alternative learning systems across the Philippines.

Despite the gap, there is a significant increase of from the previous count of 19,268,747 that welcomed the new school year.

“We observed a significant increase of 1.5 million enrollments from the start of classes on July 29, 2024, and we are optimistic in maintaining the momentum in the days to come,” DepEd noted. 

The Calabarzon region (Region 4-A) topped the list of enrollment numbers with 3,239,173 students, followed by Central Luzon (Region 3) with 2,272,889 and National Capital Region (NCR) with 2,261,126.

Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) was the last on the number of enrolled students with 323,588 so far. 

To accommodate students affected by super typhoon Carina, 738 schools in Metro Manila and Calabarzon were given a delayed start.

Students can still enroll until the deadline on Sept. 16, as set by DepEd.

Last school year, the total enrollment reached 27,584,240, according to DepEd’s report.