Nationwide enrollment dips 5% in SY 2025–2026 — DepEd

The Department of Education (DepEd) announced the decrease of the total enrollment rate by five percent in the school year 2025-2026 from all schools nationwide.

DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara reported 24.9 million enrollees for this current school year, seeing the difference between 27 million enrollees from the previous school year.

To note, the drop noted from each level: 1.8 million enrollees in kindergarten; 11.6 million in elementary, 7.5 million in junior high school; and 3.6 million in senior high school.

Based on the DepEd presentation, these total number of enrollees sparked significant differences from the previous school year, emphasizing the potential causes.

“It is a reporting issue. Number one, there are late enrollees. Number two, even if the students are enrolled, the encoding is late. Even into September, October, we are expecting this number to increase,” the DepEd chair said.

Amidst these concerns, Angara added that DepEd is still determining behind the drop of enrollment rates, not to spark concerns.

“It is not yet (a cause for concern), but we are really seeing tapering off. We are looking at the data. It’s something we will seek to understand going forward,” he added.

For ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, the decrease of enrollees questioned in spite of the country’s current population, noting the huge drop of enrollees in the elementary level with almost one million enrollees.

“The population is growing. How come there is tapering off?,” he asked.

Meanwhile, Angara is committed to resolve this concern, ensuring the sufficient allocation of the proposed P928.52-billion budget for 2026.

“Maybe we will study better. I don’t want to venture any guesses, it could be an economic factor, it could be a lot of factors,” he assured.

The proposed DepEd budget, according to the DepEd chair, will be allocated to fund new teacher items, instructional materials, infrastructures, and feeding programs to benefit Filipino learners and teachers.

On the other hand, DepEd is exerting their efforts to materialize these initiatives from the doubled funds given for next year’s utilization to educational improvements.