At least 400 private schools closed since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in 2020, the Department of Education (DepEd) spokesman said on Friday.

Michael Poa said around 10,000 students affected by the closure of the private schools have transferred to public schools.

"On the number of private schools that closed from 2020 until 2022 during the time of the pandemic based on our record we have 425 schools that have permanently closed. These are private schools because of that 20,828 affected learners and 10,000 of those transferred to public schools," he said.

Poa said DepEd "will see in the coming days" how they can help the private schools.

As of Friday morning, Poa said the total number of enrolled learners has reached 96 percent of the target number of this year's enrollment of 28.6 million.

"As of 7 am today we have 23,037,922 learners that have enrolled. If you add the early enrollment 4,129,427 learners, the total is 27 million enrolled learners this year. We are 96 percent of the target which is 28.6 million and we still have a few days before August 22 to enroll," he said.

Poa said based on their data there are a total of 24,175 schools that conduct five days in-person classes in a week which is 46 percent of the schools nationwide while 51.8 percent or 29,721 others are implementing blended learning with three days face-to-face classes.

"To add up, 98 percent of the schools have an in-person aspect while in full distance learning only 1.29 percent or 1,004 schools (were recorded)," he said.

Poa said temporary learning spaces were also provided in the areas hit by the recent calamities, such as a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Abra and storms.

"In Abra, we are constructing 165 learning spaces in other earthquake affected areas including Abra. The total is 325 temporary learning spaces. All in all for the areas affected by Typhoon ''Odette'' and ''Agaton'' with damaged schools we have 163 temporary learning spaces," said Poa. Robina Asido/DMS