The Department of Education Division of Negros Occidental recorded 251,517 enrollees from kindergarten to high school in private and public schools on Tuesday, July 30.
There were 212,167 enrollees in public schools and 39,350 in private schools, Ian Arnold Arnaez, Division of Negros Occidental spokesman, said.
The Division is still hoping to reach the same number of enrollees as last school year, which were 325,000, he said.
Arnaez attributed the low number of enrollees to the delayed encoding of data, especially in far flung areas with poor Internet connections.
Arnaez said they have also received reports of low number of kindergarten enrollees in some areas.
In the entire Western Visayas 1,520,085 enrollees had been recorded as of Monday, compared to 2,012,130 in 2023-2024, Hernani Escullar, DepEd Region 6 spokesman, said.
That should increase in the coming days as the encoding of the number of enrollees in schools and division offices is still on going, Escullar said.
The holding of the first day of classes on Monday was successful, no major untoward incidents were reported, he said.*