DepEd may extend online classes to 7-8 hours

After school opening was postponed for the second time, the Department of Education (DepEd) is now planning to make certain adjustments in the school calendar it issued in May.

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Education Secretary Leonor Briones made the recommendation to move the opening of classes which President Rodrigo Duterte approved. The decision was made to give more time to prepare, especially in areas placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) this month.

Briones also expressed concerned with the implications of having school opening moved, especially relating to the number of school days required for curriculum operations as with the activities set for both teachers and students.

DepEd said that the online classes may be extended around 7 to 8 hours. And, the coming school year should end by May next year. The adjustment of the lesson hours have to be made because of DepEd’s decision to move the class opening. 

Education Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said,

We need to abide by the law that it has to be about 200 to 220 calendar days and therefore there has to be some adjustments,

Mateo added that the academic year will necessarily be adjusted and it’s probably until May. 

When asked further on what adjustments could be done by DepEd, he said,

There are several things. It can be done through extensions of all the classes. That means from 6 hours, it can be extended to about 7 to 8 hours in a day just so we can extend the number of hours for the delivery of the minimum essential learning competencies.

With the possibility of lesson hour’s extension, DepEd will be issuing corresponding guidelines to follow.

Meanwhile, even if the enrollment period has officially ended, DepEd on Monday said that parents who still wish to register their children for the upcoming school year may still do so as schools were directed to allow late enrollment.

DepEd national enrollment data as of August 17 showed that the total number of enrollees for School Year (SY) 2020-2021 has reached 23,311,861 for Kindergarten to Grade 12, including those under Alternative Learning System (ALS) and non-graded learners with disabilities