The Department of Education (DepEd) confirmed that the proposed opening of classes in public schools for basic education level is on June 1 for this coming School Year (SY) 2020-2021.
The proposed opening of classes for kinder, elementary, junior high school, and senior high school will start on June 1, 2020 (Monday), announced Education Undersecretary and Spokesperson Annalyn Sevilla. However, she clarified that the official school calendar for 2020-2021 has “not yet been released” but this contains the approved schedule of school opening.
Under the “An Act to Lengthen the School Calendar from Two Hundred (200) days to not more than Two Hundred Twenty (220) Class Days” Law, known as Republic Act No. 7977, the “school year shall start on the first Monday of June but not later than the last day of August.”
Since the first Monday in June 2020 falls on June 1, then the public schools are mandated by law to start on that day.
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But while many students and parents might think that this is too early for the classes to begin, the good news is that the school year remains “not more than 220 class days”. Thus, this would mean that the classes might begin early but the last day of the school year would also be earlier than they are used to.
Oplan Balik Eskwela
The DepEd also announced its schedule for the Oplan Balik Eskwela (OBE) which will be held from May 25 to June 5, 2020.
“The OBE is part of the Department’s efforts to ensure that learners are already properly enrolled and able to attend school by the first day of classes. The OBE also aims to ‘address the problems, queries and other concerns commonly encountered by the public at the start of the school year,’” announced Education Secretary Leonor Briones through DepEd Memorandum No. 14 series of 2020.
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The OBE for this year will focus on four components: “Convergence,” “Command Conference,” “Communication”, and “Client Assistance.”
The DepEd has to coordinate with other government agencies involved in school opening matters to assemble the OBE Inter-Agency Task Force (OBE-IATF). This will answer the “Convergence” component.
Meanwhile, the “Command Conference” is scheduled on May 25, 2020 among DepEd officials, media, partner agencies (public and private sector), and other stakeholders.
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“DepEd shall provide the public with important information through press releases, media interviews, website postings, updates on the official Facebook and Twitter accounts, and other available media through OBE’s “Communication” component,” Briones added.
“Client assistance” will be provided by the local schools and relevant government agencies through the OBE Public Assistance Command Center (PACC) that has to be set up at the DepEd Central, Regional, and Schools Division Offices. This will “serve as the information and complaints processing and routing mechanism.”
