DepEd releases list of holidays to enable schools to plan for 2015

Education Secretary Armin Luistro. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—To enable all elementary and secondary schools nationwide to efficiently plan their activities for 2015, the Department of Education (DepEd) has released the list of regular, special non-working and special holidays for next year.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro directed the immediate distribution of the list of national holidays “to guide all the DepEd offices and schools, both public and private, in planning their academic calendars.”

“Information crucial to planning should be distributed with urgency. It steers decision-making functions and policies to their most efficient positions. It is a way to ensure that we are proactive in delivering the education agenda,” he pointed out.

Under Presidential Proclamation 831, the regular holidays of 2015 are: New Year’s Day (January 1); Maundy Thursday (April 2); Good Friday (April 3); Araw ng Kagitingan (April 9); Labor Day (May 1); Independence Day (June 12); National Heroes Day (August 31); Bonifacio Day (November 30); Christmas Day (December 25); and Rizal Day (December 30).

Special non-working days are: January 2; the Chinese New Year (February 19); Black Saturday (April 4); Ninoy Aquino Day (August 21); All Saints Day (November 1); as well as Christmas Eve (December 24) and the last day of the year (December 31).

A special school holiday is scheduled for February 25, the EDSA Revolution Anniversary.

Luistro said that the proclamation on the observance of the important Islamic holidays Eid’l Fitr and Eidul Adha has not been issued by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.

Eid’l Fitr marks the end of the Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, while Eidul Adha or the Feast of the Sacrifice, honors the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his first-born son Ismail to submit to Allah’s command and commemorates the end of the Hadj or the pilgrimage to Mecca.

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