The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced that the reopening of classes for school year 2023-2024 will be on August 29.
DepEd said that private schools may choose to open classes on any day starting the first Monday of June but not later than the last day of August.
There were 28.4 million students enrolled in the previous school year in over 44,000 public schools and over 12,000 private schools.
The Education Department received the biggest chunk of the proposed 2024 national budget with an allocation of P924.7 billion.
In April, President Bongbong Marcos said the government is now studying the possible reverting of opening of classes to March instead of June or July.
The change in school calendar was implemented during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Pinag-aaralan natin ng mabuti ‘yan dahil nga marami ngang nagsasabi pwede na, tapos na ‘yung lockdown. Karamihan na ng eskwela, face-to-face na, kaunti na lang ‘yung hindi na,” Marcos said in a radio interview.
“‘Yung ating ginagawa na sistema na hybrid system na mayroong may pumapasok, mayroong nagzozoom o kung anong klaseng pagpromote na pag-attendance, ay lahat gusto talaga na makapag-attend dahil iba talaga ‘yan,” Marcos added.
Senator Win Gatchalian first floated the idea of reverting school vacation because the summer season is difficult for students.
The ACT Teachers group also expressed support to the proposal to bring back to the original pre-pandemic school calendar.
