School year 2025-2026 opens
Metro Manila, Philippines - The new school year (SY) 2025-2026 opened on Monday, June 16, marking a return of the old academic calendar since the pandemic.
The Department of Education (DepEd) estimates 27 million enrollees for the new SY -- higher than the 23 million students last year.
The fresh SY will see the pilot implementation of the revised senior high school (SHS) curriculum in over 800 schools selected by the agency.
The newly-designed program cut the number of core subjects from 15 to five. Only two out of the four tracks were retained for students namely Academic and Technical Professional, with a bigger focus on elective subjects.
DepEd recently told NewsWatch Plus that the pilot run for the new SHS program will last for two years.
Meanwhile, the agency also extended the cutoff age for Kindergarten enrollees, allowing kids who will turn five years old on Oct. 31 to enroll from the previous Aug. 31 policy.
Starting this SY, DepEd is re-allowing the posting of visual aids in classroom walls, reversing the old policy introduced by then Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte.
While new things are in store for the fresh SY, a teacher’s group has called out perennial problems in the education sector.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers staged a protest in Mendiola, Manila early Monday, lamenting lack of teachers and classroom shortage, which they said can take up to 55 years to resolve under the current education budget.
“We can only solve our deep-seated problems by acknowledging them and compelling the government to act decisively. It is high time to double the education budget and end the long-standing state neglect of our education system,” Vladimer Quetua, ACT chairperson said.
DepEd previously said it will hire 16,000 teachers for SY 2025-2026 and will create 10,000 positions for administrative officers to free up teachers of non-teaching tasks.
It also vowed to construct 15,000 new classrooms in 2025 via public-private partnership in a bid to address the 165,000 classroom backlog.
