Negros Island Region: 27,000 students enroll in senior high school

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Around 27,000 students have so far enrolled in the senior high school (SHS) program in public schools in Negros Island Region (NIR), the education deparment’s office here said on Monday, June 13, the first day of classes.

Gilbert Sadsad, director of the Department of Education-NIR, said that the number may increase as he is expecting more students to enroll late.

He said that they will accept late enrollees until the end of the week. 

“We have yet to finalize the number of enrollees in the region to determine if there is an increase or decrease from last year’s,” he said. 

He has directed school division superintendents in the region map all their high school graduates in public schools, whether they enrolled in SHS in private schools or have not enrolled at all. (READ: Senior high school: No youth left behind?)

The schools have to trace these graduates. If these students did not enroll, they have to do all the initiatives to encourage them to go back to school, he said. 

This school year saw the implementation of the K to 12 program that added two years to the basic education cycle.

As of Monday, the education department said there were only 530,000 enrollees in the SHS program across the country, against the projected 1.5 million. This was because many schools had yet to encode their enrollment into the Learner Information System of the Department of Education (DepEd). (READ: PH rolls out senior high’s Grade 11 nationwide)

DepEd expects “more solid” figures by the end of the week. 

Senior high school students will choose which track they will pursue:

• Academic (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Accountancy, Business and Management; Humanities, Social Science, and General Academics Stand)
• Technological-vocational (Agri-Fishery Arts, Home Economics, Industrial Arts and Information Communications Technology)
• Sports (Coaching, Officiating, Fitness, Sports and Recreation Leadership)
• Arts and design (Production and Performing Arts)

Sadsad said he visited some schools during the opening of classes on Monday in Negros Oriental.

He noted that there was a senior high school class of 30 students at the Valencia National High School in Valencia town that had to hold classes onstage.

He said the building for senior high school is only 90% completed. “I directed the school officials to find a classroom, or they can also hold their class at the library.”

He is expected to visit some schools in Negros Occidental on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Negros Occidental, DepEd has allocated P1.13 billion budget for the construction of 614 classrooms in 77 schools in the province. 

Of the total budget, P714 million was for the 454 classrooms for Grade 11 while the remaining P417 million will be for the construction of about 260 classrooms for Grade 12 next year.

About 399 of the 454 classrooms for Grade 11 are still being constructed. – Rappler.com