The government has ordered a return to the old school year schedule that started in June and ended in March.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has given the go-signal for the reversion, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

The President decided the extreme heat in classrooms in the summer months of April and May was extremely uncomfortable for students and made learning hard.

Hence, the coming 2024-2025 school year will start on 29 July and end on 15 April 2025, a month earlier than scheduled by the Department of Education (DepEd) as stated in Order 003, s. 2024.

The DepEd had said in February the return to the old school calendar would slowly be eased into over five years.

But Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte recently gave Marcos two options where the next school year would end in March under both scenarios.

Education Undersecretary Michael Poa said the decision to revert to the old school calendar was arrived at after the meeting between the President and Duterte on 21 May.

The first option would have students going to school on Saturdays to complete the 182-day school year, which Marcos rejected.

In the second option, there would be 167 school days instead of 176 and did not include Saturdays. Marcos, however, said that would be “too short” for the pupils and harm their ability to learn.

“Let’s just extend the school days. To make it longer, 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, the President suggested that instead of ending on 31 March 2025, DepEd should adjust the school year to end on 15 April to enable students to complete 182 days without having to go on Saturdays,” Malacañang said.

Duterte said the suggested school calendar has been discussed with teachers, school officials, and parents.

Options laid down

“During their meeting, they discussed our proposals and options for the school calendar,” Poa said in an interview at Seda Hotel in Taguig City. “The approved option is basically to end school year 2024-2025 on 15 April 2025.”

Poa said the tentative date for the opening of classes for school year 2025-2026 will be 16 June.

“So, as you can see, we can now go back to the normal or original June to March cycle of the school calendar,” he said.

Poa said that opening classes on 16 June and ending on 14 April next year is close to the 180 school days prescribed by the DepEd’s curriculum specialist.

“So, we’re still close to it,” he said.

Poa said the DepEd had conducted consultations with teachers, parents, student leaders, various stakeholders, and field offices on the reversion to the old school calendar as early as January.

“The holding of Saturday classes might also result in fatigue among teachers and students, certain things similar to that. So we did not suggest or recommend it,” he added.