DEPED VOWS SHORTENED SY 2024-2025 WON’T RESULT IN FURTHER LEARNING LOSSES

MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) admitted some challenges in its proposal to shorten School Year 20242025 to revert the AprilMay school break, saying they have to come up with interventions to ensure that it will not result in additional learning losses among students.

DepEd Assistant Secretary

Francis Bringas explained that if the next school year is cut short to pave the way for the return of the prepandemic school calendar, the number of school days will be reduced from the usual 180 to 165.

“Because of the shortening of the school year, mashoshorten din natin ang contact days sa mga mag-aaral, then we will have to cope with the possible non-covering of some competencies,” Bringas said in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview.

“So, magiging mas puspusan ngayon ang ating mga measures to make sure na ‘yung lahat ng competencies natin for a given grade level ay mako-cover natin in a shorter period of time,” he added.

Last Tuesday, May 7, the

DepEd said it proposed to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. ending School Year 20242025 on March 31, 2025, so the next school year can begin by June 2025.

The proposal was made amid the public clamor for the immediate return to the April-May school break.

Bringas said that DepEd’s Curriculum and Teaching

Strand is coming up with interventions to cover all the competencies in the new MATATAG K-10 curriculum given the shorter period of school days.

“[This is] to make sure na hindi madadagdagan o magkakaroon pa ng additional learning loss kapag nag-shorten tayo ng ating school year,” he said.

The Education

Department earlier adopted a National Learning Recovery Program to address the learning gaps that were heightened by school closures and disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also aims to deal with the low performance of Filipino learners in international large-scale assessments and national assessments. Integrated News)