GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — It’s all systems go for the scheduled early registration on Saturday, January 25, in all public elementary and secondary schools in Region 12, an official said.
Dr. Allan Farnazo, Department of Education (DepEd) Region 12 director, said they have completed all the preparations for the day-long activity, which is part of the National Registration Day declared by DepEd central office.
“We’re urging all our parents to enlist their children, especially the incoming Grades 1 and 7, on Saturday. No requirements will be required and no fees will be collected from anyone in this activity,” he said.
The official said they earlier launched a massive information campaign for the conduct of the early registration, which is based on DepEd Order No. 2, series of 2014.
“We’ve been calling for the full participation of our parents and other concerned residents because, I think, it would be a disaster for us if only a few will join us,” he said.
Farnazo said it’s important for parents to register their children early to allow the schools to prepare properly for the opening of the new school year in June.
He said the results of the activity will mainly determine the needs of the local schools in terms of additional teachers, classrooms and other necessities for the next school year.
In a briefer, DepEd said its main objective in holding the early registration is to “gather information to base its preparations to address potential gaps that may arise even before regular enrolment.”
It said the specific target of the early registration are all five-year olds to ensure their enrolment in kindergarten and all six-year olds to ensure that they are enrolled in Grade 1 come June.
Other targets of the early registration are out-of-school children and out-of-school youth from the disadvantaged groups, including street children ages 5 to 18. They will be provided with their preferred education delivery system which could either be formal through the alternative delivery mode or through the alternative learning system.
Farnazo said they are hoping to address the region backlogs in terms of classrooms through the early registration.
He said they will immediately consolidate the registration results to determine the additional classrooms that might be needed by each of the region’s nine school divisions.
Region 12, which is also known as the Soccsksargen Region, comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
“The bidding for classrooms projects only take around 60 days so I think we have enough time for the construction phase until the opening of classes in June,” he added. (MindaNews)