More than 24 million learners had enrolled for the school year 2023-2024 as of Thursday afternoon, the Department of Education said.

A total of 24,772,003 students have registered in the 47,800 public schools and 12,162 private schools nationwide for this school year, DepEd data showed.

The figures included public schools, private schools, state universities, and colleges, as well as local universities and colleges.

A total of 217,631 learners have also enrolled under the agency's Alternative Learning System program, and 15,483 students have enrolled in Philippine schools overseas.

Region IV-A (CALABARZON) has the highest number of registrants with 3,672,271, followed by Region III (Central Luzon) with 2,753,328, and the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) with 2,597,582.

The Department of Education said it is expecting 28.8 million students this school year, which is .4 million higher than the number of students enrolled in both public and private schools nationwide last year.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas earlier said the enrollment figures are expected to increase by next week as many students have yet to enroll.

"The enrollment is a running number because other schools are still uploading their enrollment data when they access the LIS (Learner Information System). The final count will only be established once all reports are in. That will take around two weeks," he said.

"And the ongoing late enrollment contributes to a longer time to have the final number," the DepEd official added.

Earlier, Bringas said the classroom shortage in public schools hit 159,000, up from the previous year's 91,000.

But he said the 159,000 is an accumulated shortage over the years and includes the 440 classrooms totally damaged by typhoons and other natural calamities this year.

He revealed that the DepEd would need at least P397 billion to address the current classroom backlog.

In the 2023 national budget, the DepEd was given only P10 billion, enough for the construction of more than 7,000 classrooms.