ILOILO City – A total of 4,574 public schools in Western Visayas are welcoming today 1,810,946 enrollees from kindergarten to senior high school for school year 2018-2019.
According to Lea Belleza, regional spokesperson of the Department of Education (DepEd), early registration – from the last Saturday of January to the last Saturday of February – helped increase the enrollment.
“The early determination of the student population for the new school year also helped DepEd prepare for the needed school materials, facilities and number of teachers,” said Belleza.
Data from DepEd Region 6’s Policy, Planning and Research Division showed the following enrollment breakdown figures:
* kindergarten – 138,247
* elementary – 975,093
* junior high school – 540,020
* senior high school – 157,686
The 1.8 million enrollees in Western Visayas’ 20 schools divisions are spread out in the provinces of Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Capiz, Antique, and Aklan and the cities of Bacolod and Iloilo.
According to Belleza, schools across the region were “physically prepared” for the new school year through the annual Brigada Eskwela or the National Schools Maintenance Week from May 28 to June2.
DepEd data showed a total of 4,574 public schools in Western Visayas – 3,402 elementary; 677 junior high school, and 493 senior high schools.
To upgrade teachers’ competencies and update them of the latest DepEd policies, Belleza said classroom teachers were also made to attend summer in-service trainings.
Western Visayas’ teaching staff reached 65,598, DepEd data showed.
Meanwhile, there are a total of 57,713 classrooms in Western Visayas – 37, 922 elementary; 15,560 secondary; 4,231 senior high school.
DepEd data also showed 231,223 expected enrollees in private schools in the region.
There are a total of 1,496 private schools in Western Visayas – 974 elementary, 322 junior high schools and 200 senior high schools.
The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) is wary of thieves and swindlers taking advantage of students.
Policemen would be posted not only in schools but also on streets to help ease traffic congestion.
The PRO-6 is deploying an augmentation force to city and provincial police commands.
In this city, the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) already got 759 policemen from the PRO-6 distributed to six police stations (City Proper, La Paz, Jaro, Mandurriao, Molo, and Arevalo).
These police personnel were also the ones who secured the recent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in the six districts.
The policemen had just finished their Basic Internal Security Orientation Course.
“We are thankful to the regional police command for sending us more cops,” said Senior Inspector Shella Mae Sangrines, ICPO spokesperson./PN
