ILOILO City – Over two million learners from kindergarten to senior high school in Western Visayas are returning to public schools today for the start of school year 2019-2020. There are enough classrooms and teachers for them, according to Dr. Victor de Gracia, assistant director of the Department of Education (DepEd) Region 6.
Of the 2,058,138 public school learners, 170,248 are in kindergarten, 990,463 in elementary, 5,001 non-graded, 659,757 in junior high school, and 232,669 in senior high school.
Public schools are ready to welcome them back, said Lea Belleza, DepEd-6 information officer, citing the recent week-long Brigada Eskwela, the annual cleanup, repair and renovation of schools in preparation for the resumption of classes.
“We do not have much problem on the number of teachers, classrooms and school facilities. We had a massive construction of classrooms and hired around 6,700 teachers across the region,” said de Gracia.
Teachers completed their in-service training just last week to update themselves of DepEd policies and programs, according to Belleza.
Regarding classrooms, Belleza said DepEd-6 had been making sure that when schools reopen, no teacher would be holding classes under trees.
“Across Region 6 are lots of newly completed school buildings and classrooms and a few more undergoing construction. May allocated funds para sa mga facilities nga ini,” said Belleza.
She did not discount the possibility that today there would still be students seeking enrollment.
“Indi man kita ka-deny enrollment sa aton mga kabataan. It is not for us to say nga indi na kamo pwede mabaton diri, pangita kamo sang iban nga school,” said Belleza.
From 2018 to 2020, DepEd’s class size parameters are:
* 25 to a maximum of 30 learners in a class for kindergarten
* 30 to 35 learners per class for Grade 1 to Grade 3
* 40 to 45 leaners per class for Grade 4 to Grade 5
* 40 to 45 students per class for junior high school
* 40 students per class for senior high school
Nationwide, DepEd is set to welcome an estimated 27.8 million learners for school year 2019-2020, said Secretary Leonor Briones.
The department increased its efforts to ensure the readiness of almost 62,000 public and private schools nationwide “to deliver quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating basic education,” she stressed.
There is an increase in the number of learners this school year at 27,817,737 compared to 27,018,509 last school year, DepEd’s central office data showed.
DepEd conducted different activities and programs for today’s smooth opening of classes, which included the early registration for upcoming Kindergarten and Grades 1, 7, and 11 learners. It was held on Jan. 26 to Feb. 22 and approximately five million new entrants registered early./P
