Total Number of Enrollees in the Region and per Province

The common scenario of the primary and secondary schools, especially the public schools, in the country nowadays is the lack of classrooms and utilities due to the continually increasing enrollees per year. However, the situation in Northern Mindanao may be different. It has been observed that the total elementary enrollees, for both the public and private elementary schools, have been decreasing for the last couple of years and that the rate of decrease is increasing. School Year (SY) 2002 – 2003 registered total enrollees in the primary level of 647,699 pupils, which declined to 645,885 in SY 2003 – 2004. The number of enrollees further declined to 636,098 in SY 2004 – 2005, and furthermore, to 623,665 for the SY 2005 – 2006.

The decline in the total number of primary school enrollees is also validated by the decline in the participation rate from 93.07% to 90.53% for the School Years 2004 – 2005 and 2005 – 2006, respectively. Among the 5 provinces in the region, Bukidnon registered the highest decline from 96.54% to 90.17%, or a 6.37 percentage point decrease, with Misamis Oriental as the only province showing a positive growth in the participation rate from 82.27% to 84.85%, or a 2.58 percentage point increase. Among the 7 cities in the region, Ozamis City registered the highest decline from 89.21% to 82.17%, or a 7.04 percentage decrease, for the said school years. 

The trend for the total enrollees in the secondary level is quite erratic, which peaked on school year 2003 – 2004 at 285,536 enrollees. The number of student-enrollees then declined to 271,357 on SY 2004 – 2005, and then slightly increased to 279,873 for the SY 2005 – 2006.

The decline in the total number of enrollees, and in the participation rates, however, only portrays quantity. Yet what may have been lost in quantity is better compensated in quality with the continued increase in the number of school buildings, both public and private, and the continued decline in the student-to-teacher ratio. For the school year 2005 - 2006, the region has a student-to-teacher ratio of 1:34 for primary and 1:38.9 for secondary with Camiguin having the best ratio among the 5 provinces of 1:25 and 1:32.8 for primary and secondary, respectively.