Statement of Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on the adjustment of the school calendar days

We thank the Department of Education (DepEd) for heeding the call to be more flexible and adaptive in determining school calendar days and prioritizing the welfare of the students.

This is why we authored and co-sponsored Republic Act No. 11480 during the 18th Congress to give the agency the flexibility to adjust the school calendar based on necessity, especially now that the country is experiencing the effects of El Niño. We don't want a repeat of what happened to the 120 students in Laguna who were hospitalized due to heat exhaustion during a fire drill last year.

However, we must ensure that this adjustment does not reduce the length of the school calendar mandated by law, which is a minimum of 200 days. Additionally, we hope that there will be synchronicity between the DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). There must be no lull time for students who are transitioning from secondary to tertiary levels. We urge the CHED and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to consider this change so that the students will not lose their momentum in studying and no time will be wasted for them to learn.