DepEd open to early return to June-March academic year

Acceding to a clamor for an immediate return to the old school calendar due to extreme heat, the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday said it has suggested to President Marcos to end the coming school year 2024-2025 in March 2025 and start the succeeding school year by June.

- NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

“In response to the recent clamor for a more immediate reversion to the AprilMay school break, the department has already submitted a letter to the Office of the President presenting other options, including a more aggressive alternative (to end) school year 2024 to 2025 in March 2025,” DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said during the Senate inquiry into classroom conditions amid extreme heat.

Bringas added that the DepEd could not yet disclose specifics of the aggressive transition as Marcos still needs time to study the options they presented.

Under the new approach drawn up by the DepEd’s Bureau of Learning Delivery, however, Bringas noted that schools would only have 165 days of in-person classes – falling short of the 180 to 220 days prescribed by law.

To ensure that students will not continue lagging in learning competencies, the education official explained that the DepEd may have to opt for alternative delivery mode (ADM) classes during weekends.

“Still, we have the option to go for ADM for other days apart from weekdays… We have to look for some days for ADM … definitely Saturdays. This is one of the compromises for the aggressive approach,” Bringas said.

“The aggressive approach that would end our SY this March 2025 would have several implications: One, we will have shorter number of days in the SY, we have a Republic Act (RA) that tells us the minimum would be 180 up to 220 days… But our option could be to count some days as ADM, which are not necessarily in-person classes,” he added.

Aside from this, students may need to have a shorter end of school break if the SY would end by March 31, 2025 and start in June 2025, according to the DepEd official.