DepEd vows shortened SY 2024-2025 won't result in further learning losses

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday admitted some challenges in its proposal to shorten School Year 2024-2025 to revert the April-May 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 will be cut short to pave the way for the return of the pre-pandemic school calendar, the number of school days will be reduced from the usual 180 to 165.

“Because of the shortening of the school year, masho-shorten din natin ang contact days sa mga mag-aaral [we will also shorten the contact days with the students], 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.

(So, we have to intensify our measures to make sure that all our competencies for a given grade level will be covered in a shorter period of time.)

Last Tuesday, the DepEd said it proposed to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. ending the School Year 2024-2025 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 madadagdan o magkakaron pa ng additional learning loss kapag nag-shorten tayo ng ating school year,” he said.

(This is to make sure that there will be no additional learning loss when we shorten our school year.)

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. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News