Over 1.5 million public school students in W. Visayas are going back to school

Cesafinews | Over 1.5 million public school students in W. Visayas are going back to school | ILOILO CITY – The Department of Education (DepEd) is “ready” for 1,504,109 students registered in 4,048 public schools in Western Visayas to start classes on Tuesday for the School Year 2023-2024.

“Everything has been set up so that when they get back, they won’t have to clean their rooms or put things back where they belong. They just have to sit down and pay attention to their teachers. “Our students will have their first day of classes on the first day of school,” a DepEd information officer said in a phone interview on Monday. His name is Hernani Escullar Jr.

DepEd has counted 1,689,961 students who will go to school on Tuesday. This includes those who go to private schools and state universities and colleges (SUCs).

There were 896,962 students in kindergarten through grade six, 511,601 in grades seven through ten, 142,126 in grade eleven, and 139,272 in grade twelve.

But he said that as of 8 a.m. on August 26, the last quick count showed that the number of students in public schools was down by 397,525, or about 19 percent.

“This number will go up as they continue to code the new people who signed up on Saturday. Escullar added, “It’s important that all children who are supposed to get a basic education can already go to school.”

Even though the sign-up session technically ended on August 26, the information officer said that schools will still take new students.

Escullar also said that DepEd Regional Director Ramir Uytico signed Regional Memorandum Order 637 on August 24, 2023. This document gives directions to make sure that classes start smoothly and that students can go back to school safely.

These included getting help from law enforcement to make sure there was peace and order in the area around the school, giving learners only healthy and nutritious food and drinks, and giving learners with signs and symptoms of illness the medical help and interventions they needed.

Learners also need to be safe from abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination, bullying, and other kinds of abuse.

“We have a help desk called Balik Eskwela that can respond and do what needs to be done,” he said.(via PNA)