The Department of Education expressed optimism on Wednesday that it would hit its 28.8 million enrollment target for school year 2023-2024, as more schools from various regions have not yet submitted their enrollment data to the agency's learner information system.

"Yes, we are on course naman. We will be looking at a final number considering the variance between Grade 12 students who graduated and incoming Kindergarten pupils, among others," DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said in a Viber message.

Bringas, also the agency's deputy spokesperson, said they would still accept late enrollees until the end of this month.

"Ideally yes. Given the recent disruptions due to tropical storms, etc. That's why the numbers are still moving until now," he said.

"Other schools are still reporting to our learner information system. Once 100 percent of schools have reported, the enrollment will be closed and we will have the official number for this school year," the DepEd official added.

Bringas also said that the reason for not enrolling is not because learners are displaced.

"The public schools do not refuse enrolment. Once the learner information system closes (after the first month), schools will employ child-find procedures to determine reasons for not returning to school," he said.

"ALS [Alternative Learning System] will be the other alternative for them to continue if they are unable to continue formal schooling for some reasons," the DepEd official added.

As of 9 a.m. 6 September, a total of 25,890,617 learners have registered for this school year.

Calabarzon led the regions with the most number of enrollees with 3,821,034, followed by Central Luzon with 2,817,827, and the National Capital Region with 2,675,386.

Meanwhile, the Cordillera Administrative Region has the lowest number of registrants with 406,815.

There were 28.4 million learners enrolled in public schools and private schools nationwide in the previous school year.