AT LEAST two million public school students are expected to flock to schools in Western Visayas Monday, June 3, 2019, the official start of classes for school year 2019 to 2020.
The Department of Education (DepEd) in Western Visayas said majority of these kindergarten to senior high school students are in cities and municipalities under the Divisions of Negros Occidental and Iloilo.
For Negros Occidental alone, Division Superintendent Dr. Portia Mallorca said they are expecting about 357,000 students going to school Monday.
Mallorca said the figure is based on the one percent projected increase, or about 5,000 students, from last school year's enrollment of about 352,000.
"They will be catered by 677 schools in 21 localities in the province," she said, adding that of these schools, 499 are elementary and the rest are for junior and senior high schools.
The Division of Negros Occidental covers all 19 municipalities and two cities, Victorias and Talisay.
The remaining 11 cities are under other divisions like that of Bacolod, Bago, La Carlota, Himamaylan, Kabankalan and Sipalay in the south, and San Carlos, Escalante, Sagay, Cadiz and Silay in the north.
Mallorca reminded schools that there should be no longer cleaning activities in the school starting today.
Teachers should already start their classes, the superintendent said.
In terms of late enrollment, Mallorca pointed out that schools can still accept late enrollees.
"No child should be left behind. However, we encourage on time enrollment as it will serve as basis for our programs and projects for the entire school year," she said, adding that late enrollees may have not entered in their preferred schools.
The DepEd official explained that there are schools that are already "overflowing" or have reached its capacity thus, late enrollees may be referred to other schools.
The DepEd has set a pre-registration as early as January this year. The enrollment even continued during summer up to the Brigada Eskwela in May.
She also stressed the "no collection" policy for students including late enrollees.
"Students are not required to wear school uniform," Mallorca said, adding that this part of ensuring that no one is deprived of their right to education.*
