DepEd chief orders other schools to accept students displaced in Marawi even without documents 

June 6, 2017

Education Secretary Leonor Briones has ordered other schools in the country to accept displaced students from troubled Marawi City even without documentary requirements. In a press briefing in Malacanang on Tuesday, Briones said out of 22,000 affected students in Marawi, only 1,391 children from the war zone area have been enrolled in schools outside the city. "We have waived all the documentary requirements. We have encouraged them to enrol in the school nearest to where they have evacuated," Briones said. "I have directed to accept these emergency transferees even with the unavailability or insufficiency of the required transfer credentials. Then to track the emergency transferees, the receiving schools shall collect and record the relevant learner information. That's all, their names, address of learner if known, the school of origin, receiving school, whatever information they will give," she said. But the other requirements, such as the birth certificate, the grade, the transfer document signed by the principal, and the clearance, are not required anymore before the transferees are accepted to their new schools, Briones said. Based on their monitoring, she said some students in Marawi transferred to schools in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, General Santos City, Cotabato City, Tacurong City, Kidapawan City, Metro Manila and Tarlac, among others. Briones said her office was still waiting for the advice of the military on when the 69 affected schools in Marawi would open. She said the military initially advised DepEd that schools in Marawi could be open in two weeks time from June 5. "But the way things are, the extension might be longer...so we are waiting (security officials) for their advice...the clearing operations might take longer even if Marawi was recovered (by the military from the terrorists)," she said. The Islamic State-linked Maute Terror Group attacked Marawi on May 23. Since then, the terrorists continued to occupy the city. (Celerina Monte/DMS)