MORE THAN a million students trooped to public schools at the opening of classes on Tuesday, Aug. 29.
During the AFP-PNP press briefing held at The Royal Mandaya Hotel on Aug. 30, Department of Education XI spokesperson Jenielito Atillo said they recorded 1,236,229 enrollees, comprising 623,854 males and 612,375 females.
“This is just 86.7 percent of the figure that we had last school year because we reached beyond 1.4 last school year,” he added.
“The data is continuously connected as of current there is a great probability, if we will not reach it we will go beyond the 1.4 mark last school year,” he further said.
Moreover, Atillo said that the first day of classes was generally smooth based on their monitoring.
“We have a very smooth opening of classes and we would like to thank our partners with the local government units, PNP and AFP, and traffic sector for providing us a very peaceful opening, and even the parents, we thanked them and our learners,” he said.
The official also urged those who skipped the opening to attend their classes since teachers have already started their lessons and monitoring the absences of students beginning Aug. 29.
“If you miss one session, you will miss a lot because classes have started,” he added.
Moreover, the Department of Education now employs full face-to-face classes. However, teachers are advised to prepare blended modalities in cases of calamities and emergencies that may force the department to announce the cancellation of classes.
