Marcos sets school year 2024-2025 from July 29 to April 15

FILE PHOTO: Public school teacher Ivy Catungal with her students at San Diego Elementary School in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Updated on May 22, 2025 at 11:29 a.m.

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday set this coming school year to run from July 29 to April 15.

The Department of Education originally set the school year 2024 to 2025 from July 29 to March 31, 2025.

The Palace said in a statement that Marcos made the move in response to widespread complaints about the class schedule.

“The opening of classes for the school year 2024-2025 will begin on July 29 this year and end on April 15, 2025,” said the Palace in a statement.

The original schedules proposed by DepEd were either 180 school days with 15 in-person Saturday classes or 165 school days with no in-person Saturday classes. Both would have ended on March 31, 2024.

In a meeting with DepEd in Malacañan, Marcos rejected both options so that the students’ Saturdays would not be compromised.

The President instead said that the school days should be lengthened.

“Habaan lang natin ‘yung school days. Para matagal, dagdagan na lang natin ‘yung school days basta huwag natin gagalawin ‘yung Saturday. So, school day will remain the same. Standard lang,” Marcos told Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte during the meeting.

(Let us just make the school days longer. To add, let us just add school days but let us not touch Saturdays. o, school day will remain the same. Standard lang.)

The El Niño phenomenon has forced schools to cancel or move online due to intense heatwaves.