The Department of Education has officially released the school calendar for School Year 2019-2020 to “effectively and efficiently” implement school events and activities in public and private elementary and secondary schools nationwide.
In DepEd Order No. 007 Series of 2019 signed by Education Secretary Leonor Briones last April 22, DepEd announced that the coming school year “shall formally open Monday, June 3, 2019 and will end on Friday, April 3, 2020.”
Briones said that the school calendar for SY 2019-2020 “shall consist of 203 school days” inclusive of the five-day In-Service Training, the three days for the Parent-Teacher Conferences conducted within the school year, and the World Teachers’ Day, “provided that during the five-day INSET, students shall be given advance reading for the attainment of learning objectives.”
As provided for in Republic Act No. 7797 entitled “An Act to Lengthen the School Calendar from Two Hundred Days to Not More Than Two Hundred Twenty Class Days,” Briones said that “private schools may deviate” from this school calendar.
“However, they may not start classes earlier than the first Monday of June and not later than the last day of August,” she explained. “Said schools should notify in advance their respective regional offices regarding any deviation from the school calendar,” she added.
Briones noted that the Implementing Guidelines on the SY 2019-2020 calendar of activities have been provided “to enable the schools to effectively and efficiently implement the school events and activities.”
Likewise, she said that these “guidelines shall allow the ROs and the schools division offices to provide support to schools, particularly in the areas of instruction and progress monitoring and evaluation.”
Briones reminded that schools “may observe national and local celebrations other than those indicated” by the DepEd order “provided that the activities are beneficial to the learners.” DepEd ROs, she said, “may issue a supplemental calendar to reflect their local events.” (Ina Malipot)