• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
As the enrollment for school year 2024-2025 wraps up on July 26, the Department of Education reported on Friday that more than 159,000 students have initially enrolled in the public schools of Negros Occidental.
Of the 159,347 enrollees as of July 25, 88,724 are enrolled in elementary and 70,623 logged in the secondary level, according to Arnold Arnaez, spokesperson of the DepEd Schools Division-Negros Occidental.
The number of enrollees, Arnaez added, represented around 50 percent of the enrollees in the previous school year, which was 325,000.
He noted a surge of late enrollees every school year, usually before the first quarter examination.
Classes for SY 2024-2025 will begin on July 29 and end on May 16 next year.
Arnaez said they cannot determine yet whether there is an increase or reduction in the number of enrolled students in public schools, due to delays in encoding as a result of poor internet connections.
On the other hand, Arnaez said the “MATATAG Curriculum” will be implemented starting this school year.
Launched in August last year, the MATATAG Curriculum is the revised curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 10. It aims to decongest the current curriculum and focuses on the development of foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills among younger learners.
DepEd said the MATATAG Curriculum will be rolled out in phases: Kindergarten, Grades 1, 4, and,7 for SY 2024-2025; Grades 2, 5, and 8 for SY 2025-2026; Grades 3, 6, and 9 for SY 2026-2027; and Grade 10 for SY 2027-2028.*
