The number of students who enrolled for school year 2021 to 2021 has exceeded the previous year's tally by 105.2 percent, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said on Friday.

"We are very happy in the Department of Education. Because this year even though we see there are many challenges that are being faced by the department because of the other variants of COVID-19, it is good news that we now surpassed the number of enrolment last year," Briones said during the "Laging Handa" public briefing.

"Our enrollees this year are 27,583,701. This is for formal education, it does not include overseas schools. In non-formal (education), it has reached 202,603 learners," she said.

"Last year, if we are going to compare it was 26,227,022. So it means if we compare this it is 105.2 percent higher compared to last year; and we are waiting for the update from the overseas schools," she added.

Briones also expressed hope more students will enrol at Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) as the government is starting to gradually open the economy.

"We are hoping that with the further opening up of the economy, more students will enroll in our Alternative Learning Systems and the non-formal enrollees will also increase," she said.

Classes for the school year 2021 to 2022 began last Monday. Robina Asido/DMS