MORE than 13,000 students in Western Visayas who were unable to take formal classes in elementary and secondary schools graduated through the Alternative Learning System.

“ALS is a way to give education to our learners who are not members of the formal schooling or the basic K to 12 Program. As completers, they can look for decent jobs or proceed to formal school,” Department of Education information officer for Western Visayas Hernani Escullar Jr. said.

There were 12,009 junior high school graduates and 1,572 elementary school graduates in 21 school divisions in Western Visayas.

The oldest was a resident of Roxas City aged 74.

“The highest completers were from the schools division of Negros Occidental with 2,311, followed by schools division of Iloilo province with 1, 401 and of Iloilo City with 1,190 for the secondary level,” Escullar said.

The schools division of Negros Occidental had the most number of elementary graduates at 283, followed by the province of Iloilo with 156, and the schools division of La Carlota City, 137.