By Phylline Calubayan

PHOTO: PCOO

Education Secretary Leonor Briones on Monday officially opened School Year (SY) 2021-2022 to over 24.6 million Filipino students, stating that the school opening for the second time in a pandemic is a “celebration of victories and successes.” 

"We opened classes last year. We successfully ended them. Now we are opening another school year. Isn’t that success worthy of celebration?" Briones asked during the virtual school opening program.

A statement she made last school year saying that the opening of online classes was a success, drew flak from the public as the country struggled to shift from traditional to digital learning whilst battling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

She also mentioned in her statement that millions of students lacked the technology — from gadgets to internet access — for the digital shift. 

"When we declared victory over COVID-19 last year, some people got angry. How can one declare victory in the time of COVID-19? For them, it was the worst time to feel victorious," said the education secretary.

According to data from the Department of Education (DepEd), as of Monday, 24,603,822 public and private school students have registered so far. This figure is 93.8% of last school year’s more than 26.6 million students, implying that there are still around two million of last year’s students that are yet to enroll.

The DepEd announced the extension of the enrollment period until September 30, with the hopes of matching last year’s enrollment of over 26.6 million students.


Report source: Rappler