MANILA, (PIA) -- For Academic Year 2021-2022, the National Capital Region (NCR) has so far recorded 980,783 enrollees in Metro Manila's public schools, according to the Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday.

The DepEd said Metro Manila recorded the second highest number of enrollees in the country with 688,668 learners and 292,125 registrants. Physical classes remain suspended in the capital region due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DepEd NCR is composed of 16 schools divisions and its school population is being served by 516 public elementary and 456 public junior and senior high schools, complemented by 1,982 private pre-schools, 2,122 private elementary schools, 965 private junior high schools and 721 private senior high schools serving more than 2.8 million children in the region.

The DepEd on Monday also reported that 7,249,765 learners so far have enrolled in public schools nationwide.

The DepEd’s Learner Information System Quick Counts logged 2,692,438 learners enrolled since Aug. 16 and 4,557,327 during the early registration as of June 2.

So far, Calabarzon has logged the highest number of enrollees at 1,153,088 – 672,379 learners enrolled and 480,709 under early registration.

Last year, 26,826,387 students enrolled in Kindergarten, Grades 1 to 6, Junior High School, Senior High School, and the Alternative Learning System.

Registration will run until Sept. 13, the first day of the school year that will use blended learning. (PIA-NCR)