DepEd to shorten next school year by 15 days

MANILA, Philippines —  The Department of Education (DepEd) will cut the prescribed minimum of 180 school days for the coming school year 2024-2025 by 15 days to ensure that students and teachers are not in classrooms during extreme summer heat by April and May 2025.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said the agency plans to start SY 2024-2025 on July 29 and end it on March 31, 2025, with 165 school days or 15 days short of the 180 to 220 days prescribed by the law.

“The immediate effect of the transition is if we’re going to end in March 2025, the number of school days will be reduced to 165. Historically, the minimum has been 180 school days, and because we will shorten the SY, we will have to cope with the possible non-covering of some competencies,” Bringas explained in an interview on PTV.

To prevent schools from being unable to cover all required competencies for the next SY, the DepEd will employ drastic measures to ensure all competencies are covered in a shorter period of time, according to the education official.

“So that’s what the curriculum and teaching strands are preparing to make sure that there will not be an increase or additional learning loss,” he said.

President Marcos earlier directed the DepEd to immediately revert to the June-to-March academic calendar, prompting the agency to abandon its phased transition protocol that would have taken full hold three SYs from now.

While various groups and education stakeholders welcomed the move, some lawmakers and experts are wary about the consequences of shortening the period of schooling, considering how Filipino students are currently five to six years behind in learning competencies, based on international assessments.

Acknowledging these apprehensions, Bringas noted that the DepEd’s Bureau of Learning Delivery (BLD) is currently crafting a “concrete plan” to ensure that students would not continue lagging in their competencies with the shortened SY.

“Experts’ opinions are important – in that, if we shorten the school days, it has to be covered and aided by innovative and useful approaches so that the coverage of competencies would still have quality despite the reduced number of school