MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Education has set the start of the incoming school year on June 4, requiring all public schools to follow a school calendar with 200 school days.
Through DepEd Order No. 26, Education Secretary Armin Luistro called on some 45,000 state-funded elementary and high schools to “synchronize all core events and teaching-learning activities” to make the best out of school year 2012-2013.
Following the time-honored practice of giving a degree of flexibility in the school calendar, DepEd set 180 days as the “non-negotiable contact time” in school, or the actual time students are in class.
Within the remainder of 20 days, DepEd set five days for in-service training of teachers and the conduct of parent-teacher conferences. The rest may be used for extra-curricular activities or as allowance in case of class suspensions.
Private schools may follow the DepEd calendar or set their own schedule, provided that they do not start classes earlier than June 4 and not later than August.
“Private schools may deviate from this school calendar.… They shall notify the appropriate/ respective DepEd Office in advance regarding any deviation,” said Luistro.