ILOILO City – Early registration for incoming kindergarten and grades 1, 7 and 11 learners in public schools for school year 2024-2025 started on Jan. 27 and will run until February 23, 2024.
With this, the Department of Education (DepEd) Region 6 is encouraging parents or guardians to register their children early.
“Ang purpose sang early registration is for us in the Department of Education nga maka-allocate sang resources kag maka-plan out sang nagakaigu nga tikang agud indi man mabudlayan ang aton kabataan sa pagsugod sang aton school year 2024-2025,” DepEd-6 information officer Hernani Escullar Jr. told Panay News.
Parents or guardians, Escullar said, should go to the public school where they intend to enroll their children, fill out the Basic Education Enrollment Form and submit it to the personnel in-charge of early registration.
The documentary requirement needed is birth certificate or any document that could serve as proof of the child’s identity.
The DepEd-6 reiterated that there are no fees required for early registration.
For the Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA) or remote barangays, early registration drop boxes could be made available for parents or guardians in barangay halls to collect and submit the form.
As of 8 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 29, DepEd-6 recorded 36,792 early registrants: 9,869 for kindergarten; 16,823 for grade 1; 5,022 for grade 7; and 5,079 for grade 11.
“Ang grades nga wala namon nahambal, grades 2, 6, 8, 10, and 12, they are considered na as automatic registered. Meaning ang data this year i-carry over na lang naton for the planning sang aton school year 2024-2025,” Escullar said.
If parents or guardians could not make it to the monthlong early registration, they could still enroll their children on the schedule to be released by the DepEd in the coming weeks.
The DepEd-6 also encouraged private schools to conduct early registration on the same dates.
In a memorandum signed by Undersecretary for Administration Nolasco Mempin and Assistant Secretary for Administration and Planning Service officer-in-charge Noel Baluyan on Jan. 22, 2024, DepEd instructed its local officials including regional directors, schools division superintendents, regional planning officers, division planning officers, school heads, and all others concerned, to monitor the conduct of the early registration for the incoming school year.
Citing DepEd Order No. 03, s. 2018, DepEd said the early registration for incoming kindergarten and grades 1, 7 and 11 learners in public schools started on Jan. 27 to Feb. 23, 2024 for the SY 2024-2025.
DepEd also issued reminders for all public elementary and secondary schools during the conduct of early registration.
All public elementary and secondary schools shall update or encode daily in the early registration facility in the Learner Information System (LIS) using the school head or school administrator account.
Public elementary and secondary schools also need to use print or electronic copies of the Basic Education Enrollment Form (Revised as of March 27, 2023) to ensure that necessary information in registering incoming kindergarten and grades 1, 7 and 11 learners, and other data, are “properly captured.”
DepEd also reminded public elementary and secondary schools to encode in the early registration facility the prospective enrollees for other grade levels such as grades 2 to 6, 8 to 10, and 12 based on the previous school enrollment to “get the overall picture of the expected enrollees for the next enrollment.”
“Preferably, the conduct of the early registration shall be done through face-to-face transactions with the schools,” DepEd said.
“However, the schools may continue to implement other options or means of collecting early registration forms,” it added.
DepEd also instructed authorities of public and private schools to “strictly enforce and implement” the kindergarten cut-off age as stipulated in DO 020, s. 2018 (Amendment to DepEd Order No. 47, s. 2016).
Schools division superintendents and school heads, DepEd said, shall facilitate the conduct of advocacy campaigns within their respective jurisdictions to inform the general public and encourage school children and parents/guardians of prospective learners to participate in the early registration by posting relevant materials in conspicuous places, and making announcements on local televisions and radio broadcasting stations. (With a report from Manila Bulletin)/PN
