By Public school teachers and students are all set for the opening of academic year 2023-2024 on Aug. 29, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Monday.
“In general, I can say that all systems go for the opening on August 29,” DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
According to DepEd’s Aug. 27 data, over 22 million learners out of the projected 28 million have enrolled for the upcoming academic year. Of the 22 million enrollees so far, 19 million are from public schools while three million are from private institutions.
Calabarzon logged the highest number of enrollees at over 3.4 million, followed by Central Luzon with over 2.5 million, and the National Capital Region with over 2.4 million.
While enrollment ended on Aug. 26, Bringas said the latest tally is expected to increase this week as late enrollees come in.
Schools open amid the lack of classrooms — a persistent problem in education in the Philippines. Under the 2024 budget, DepEd is proposing ₱10 billion that can only build around 7,100 classrooms, which is far from the accumulated shortage at 159,000.
Bringas said the total shortage includes school facilities that were destroyed by natural disasters. To address this, he said DepEd’s long term solution is institutionalizing blended learning.
“We have learned from our two years of pandemic that there are many best practices that were conducted or that were done in several schools all over the country and we intend to look at these best practices to incorporate them into our system of developing a standard and institutionalized blended learning,” he noted.
Bringas said several alternative delivery modes will be adapted like the modified in-school, off-school approach, and digital and distance learning modalities that includes digital and printed materials.
In the institutionalization of blended learning, the education official said “we will be redefining our definition of classrooms and we will be looking into a new definition for learning spaces.”
While DepEd is working on this, classes schedule on shifts will continue especially for congested areas, Bringas said. The department is also still looking into possibly leasing facilities of private schools that closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said in another interview that the government must prioritize providing more funds for classrooms to finally address this perennial problem.
She also mentioned some of her concerns ahead of the opening of the classes like class size, scheduling of teachers, and school facilities.