CLOSE to 27 million students are now enrolled for the School Year 2023-2024, the latest data from the Department of Education (DepEd) showed.

As of September 14, the DepEd tallied 26,854,731 enrollees in public schools, private schools, state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local universities and colleges (LUCs).

Calabarzon registered the highest number of enrollees so far with 3,909,428; followed by Central Luzon with 2,955,094; and the National Capital Region with 2,766,467.

Rounding out the top five are Central Visayas with 2,076,245 enrollees and Western Visayas with 1,995,435.

Schools will accept late enrollees until the end of the month as the DepEd aims to hit the target of 28.8 million learners for this school year, which began on August 29.