An official from the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (COCOPEA) said some private schools are in a ''critical state'' as the enrolment in private learning institutions continue to go down.

"Based on the latest quick count of the Department of Education (DepEd) the enrolment in private sector is low, only at 60 percent of last year's enrolment but our last year's enrolment is only half of the enrolment in the pre pandemic school year," COCOPEA managing director Joseph Noel Estrada said during the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing on Tuesday.

"It is very low and there are schools that are already in critical state and the problem is on how they can continue given the very low turnout of enrolment," he added.

Because the situation has also affected the personnel and teachers in the private school, Estrada called for the assistance of the government to provide subsidies to help parents and students this school year.

"Again we request and pray for government intervention, maybe we will be able to provide subsidies directly to the students and teachers to help in the continuity of education," he said.

"Last year there is an assistance like the Bayanihan 2 and hopefully we will also have the same, especially now that we need to make a transition to face to face delivery again there are additional cost. So instead passing it to our students and their parents, it is good if the subsidy from the government will be directly given to them," he added.

As the DepEd is reviewing the participation of 20 private schools in the pilot implementation of limited face to face classes, Estrada raised a concern over the guideline in requiring parents to sign a consent form to allow their children to join the pilot face-to- face program of the DepEd.

"When we say the parents will sign of a consent, of course it will have conditions like that the schools will not be liable in case the student get infected with the virus. If that is the case the parents may become prohibitive, meaning the parents may refuse to let their child go to school of they have to sign such wavers," he explained.

DepEd announced on Monday the pilot implementation of limited face -to-face classes was approved by President Rodrigo Duterte. Robina Asido/DMS