As it prepares for the possibility of a shorter School Year (SY) 2024-2025, the Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday, May 8, assured that interventions will be in place to curb possible learning loss.
“We will be employing several interventions, strengthening and enhancing our current approaches so that the mastery of the competencies that are in the curriculum will be ensured,” DepEd Assistant Secretary and Deputy Spokesperson Francis Cesar Bringas in an interview with Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.
DepEd has already recommended to President Marcos the immediate return to the June to March school calendar to ensure the health and safety of learners and teachers amid the hot weather experienced during the “summer months” or in April to May.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2024/5/6/dep-ed-to-comply-with-marcos-decision-on-reverting-to-old-school-calendar
Bringas, however, noted that the immediate return to the old school calendar would cut down the number of school days and might have an impact on the quality of education.
“The immediate effect of transition from the current cycle that we have, if we’re going to end in March of 2025, ang magiging number of school days natin ay bababa siya to 165 school days (the number of school days will decrease to 165 school days,” Bringas said.
Historically, he explained that the minimum number of school days that DepEd allocates to cover competencies in the curriculum is 180 days.
“Because of the shortening of the school year, masho-shorten yung contact days natin sa mga mag-aaral then we would have to cope with the possible non-covering of some competencies (Because of the shortening of the school year, our contact days with the students will be shortened, and we would have to cope with the possible non-coverage of some competencies),” Bringas explained.
To ensure that all competencies in a given grade level will be covered in a “shorter period of time,” he assured that DepEd will further intensify its measures.
Bringas said that DepEd’s Curriculum and Teaching Strand is currently preparing various measures to ensure that there will be “no additional learning loss” when the shorter school year has been approved and implemented.
“We will see in the revised calendar later on or in the near future the certain measures and interventions to cope with the competencies in a shorter period of school days,” Bringas explained in a mix of English and Filipino.
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