Department of Education (DepEd) Sec. Armin Luistro denied the reports that between 200,000 and 400,000 students who finished Grade 10 are not expected to go on to Senior High School under the K-12 program this year. Sec. Luistro also noted that the 200,000 and 400,000 students dropout this year is lower compared to more than 50 percent dropout rate in previous year.
The DepEd Secretary also stated that for the very first time in the history of DepEd, the agency will have a national database of enrolled Grade 11 students both public and private. The statement of the DepEd Secretary came amid reports of low enrollee turnout on the first day of school and nationwide protests against the K-12 program which was already supported by Pres. Rody Duterte.
Based upon the DepEd national server, the agency already received over 600,000 enrollment lists from more than half of the 11,000 schools offering Senior High Schools (SHS), Luistro stated. According to DepEd Sec. Armin Luistro, most of the schools that were not yet able to encode enrollment dara are public schools located in remote areas and private schools that will being the school year in July or August 2016.
Sec. Luistro also added that there were at least 1.1 million Grade 11 students already enrolled in various schools offering SHS nationwide while an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 Grade 11 students are enrolled in public schools, while 300,000-400,000 students will pursue senior high in private schools, state universities and colleges, local universities and colleges, and technical-vocational institutions.
DepEd’s records showed that about 1.5 million students completed Grade 10 in School year 2015-2016. The expected high turnout of enrollees of Senior High School could be attributed to the wider range of options, in terms of tracks and schools, that SHS students have, offering them programs covering academics, sports, arts and design, and technical-vocational livelihood.
Some 11,000 schools nationwide are SHS-ready. Of this number, 6,002 are public schools operated by DepEd while 5,031 are private schools, private and public universities and colleges, and technical vocational schools.