Marcos OKs gradual return to old school year

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has given the go signal for the Philippines to slowly switch back to the old school year, which runs from June to March of the following year, Malacañang said Wednesday.

According to Malacañang, Marcos made the decision to revert to the original school year as excessive heat inside classrooms during “summer” season resulted in the cancellation of face-to-face classes from April to May.

Hence, Marcos said the upcoming school year (SY) 2024 to 2025 should start on 29 July and will end on 15 April 2025, a month earlier than scheduled by the Department of Education (DepEd) as stated in Order No. 003, s. 2024.  

DepEd first said in February that they would be slowly switching back to the old-school calendar over the course of five years.

But Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte gave Marcos two choices on how to go about switching back to the old school calendar. However, the end of SY 2024–2025 would have happened in March of next year in both cases.

One of those two choices made it more likely that kids would have to go to school on Saturdays to finish the 180-day school year, which Marcos rejected.

There would be 165 school days instead of 176 in a second option that doesn't include Saturday school. However, Marcos said that would be "too short" for kids and harm their ability to learn.

"Let's just extend the school days. To make it longer, let's just add more school days, as long as we don't touch Saturday. So, the school days will remain the same. Just standard," Marcos told Duterte in Filipino.

"As a compromise, he said instead of ending on March 31, 2025, DepEd should adjust the SY to end on April 15, 2025 to enable students to complete 182 days without using Saturdays to go to school," Malacañang also said.

Duterte said that the suggested school calendar had already been discussed with teachers, school officials, and parents.