Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones has officially declared the start of the School Year 2021-2022 on Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We opened classes last year. We successfully ended them. Now we are opening another school year. Isn’t that success worthy of celebration?” she remarked.
Briones said that 93.8% of enrollees last year also enrolled for this school year.
“As of this morning, umabot na tayo ng 24.6 million that is 93.8% already of our enrollment level last school year,” a DepEd official said.
Calabarzon, Central Luzon and Metro Manila are the regions with the most number of enrollees.
“Last year, I declared victory with the opening of classes on October 5, 2020,” Briones said during the national school opening day.
“Today, September 13, 2021, DepEd and the rest of the country celebrate with great joy in success in opening classes for the second year at the time of COVID-19,” she said.
Initial figures showed that 98.13% of Grade 6 students were able to graduate, 96.9% for Grade 10 students, and 97.2% for grade 11.
“As expected, criticism poured in, and ‘failures’ were pointed out. These are part of the process in the journey to victory and success. A famous personality has commented that ‘if you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success,” she said.
Recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund reported that the Philippines is among the last countries in the world which are continuing with the closure of schools.
Kuwait, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have moved to reopen some of their schools this month, according to Isy Faingold, who heads education work in UNICEF-Philippines.
Faingold said Kuwait would resume in-person classes in 1,460 schools with a gradual reopening for all levels while Bangladesh would do so for select grade levels.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia would allow high school students who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to classrooms while those at the primary level would continue online classes until October.
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