Department of Education Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas (leftmost) speaks at hearing of Senate committee on basic education on August 23, 2023. (Screenshot by Maila Aiger)
MANILA, Philippines— The prospect of reverting to the original June opening of classes is still unlikely next year.
This is according to Assistant Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Francis Bringas when he attended a hearing of the Senate committee on basic education on Wednesday.
Bringas noted for school year 2023-2024, classes will open on August 29 and will end on June 14 next year.
He said August 29 “still adheres to the to the existing law which states that the school opening should not be before the first day of June and not later than the last day of August.”
“So with this calendar that is stipulated in the Deped (Department of Education) Order for this next school year, we’re not yet looking positively at an opening for June since we’re still ending the coming school year on June 14, 2024,” Bringas said.
He was referring to DepEd Order Number 22 which outlines the school calendar and activities for the school year 2022-2023.
The same order states the school calendar for 2024 to 2025 should start from August 26, 2024 to June 27, 2025.
There have been proposals to revert to the pre-pandemic school calendar of June to March following complaints of difficulty holding classes during summer.
This concern was also mentioned in a resolution earlier filed by panel chairman, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
In the resolution, however, Gatchalian cited pre-pandemic data which showed that there were numerous suspensions in the original school calendar due to typhoons, transport strikes, and earthquakes.
“There is a need to re-evaluate whether the school year should continue to be conducted during the summer when continuous heat exposure may be dangerous to one’s health, or to revert to the original school calendar where classes were suspended largely due to floods because of typhoons,” the senator then said in the resolution.
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