DepEd: Teachers’ month-long break to help in PH’s PISA performance

The 30-day unhampered break of teachers in June might be able to improve the performance of the Philippines in the next Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Department of Education (DepEd) said Wednesday.

Citing the recently released Department Order 003, DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said that not giving teachers any voluntary nor mandatory tasks from June 1-30, 2024, would be able to give them uninterrupted time to rest after the end of the current school year.

“[Ito’y] para ma-enjoy talaga nila ang vacation nila dahil in the past, marami tayong mga DepEd-initiated activities pa rin during the summer season, during the two-month break. Nababawasan ang time ng mga mag-aaral, lalo ng mga teacher, na magpahinga after each school year,” Bringas said in an Unang Balita interview.

(This is for them to really enjoy their vacation because in the past, we still had many DepEd-initiated activities during the summer season or the two-month break. Because of these, the time for students, especially teachers, to rest after each school year was being reduced.)

Bringas said he thinks that this development would not negatively affect the country’s performance in international large-scale assessments such as the PISA.

“In fact, makakatulong siguro ito dahil sa pag-aaral sa ating mga researchers, nakikita na overworked ang ating mga teachers at masyadong congested ang ating curriculum na napapagod ang mga mag-aaral. So this is a much welcomed break for all of them,” he added.

(In fact, this might help because based on the study of our researchers, our teachers are overworked and our curriculum is too congested that the students get tired. So this is a much welcomed break for all of them.)

The Education Department has set the end of the school year 2023-2024 earlier than scheduled to gradually shift back to the old school calendar with April-May as the summer vacation.

The end of the current school year is now slated for May 31, 2024, while SY 2024-2025 is set to start on July 29, 2024 and end on May 16, 2025.

Based on DepEd’s projections, the start of classes might start reverting back to mid-June by SY 2026-2027, with the school break beginning by the first week of April by then. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News