DepEd releases calendar for first trimester year, walls off class time from outside activities

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April 20, 2026 | 6:32pm

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education has set the opening of classes this year on June 8 under the country's first trimester calendar, releasing guidelines that wall off instructional time from the school activities, celebrations, and government programs that the department says have long eaten into teaching days.

The school year runs through April 8, 2027 — 201 class days split across three terms of 55 to 57 instructional days each. Under the new structure, each term is built around a protected teaching block of up to 62 days. Everything else — report cards, parent-teacher meetings, trainings, competitions — is pushed into dedicated end-of-term windows.

The shift scraps the four-quarter structure that DepEd has historically maintained but now sees as an obstacle to its current efforts to resolve students' learning gaps, according to the rationale included in DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026. 

Quarterly breaks and short assessment cycles "compress actual instructional time," "fragment learning continuity," and "increase teacher workload," the department said. 

The trimester system, according to the department, is meant to give teachers longer uninterrupted stretches in the classroom and reduce the churn of activities that regularly pulled students and teachers away from lessons.

How it works 

Under the guidelines, each term is divided into three blocks. An "instructional block" of 55 to 62 days is reserved almost entirely for teaching. 

An "end-of-term block" of eight to 10 days absorbs non-teaching activitie, such as parent-teacher conferences, competitions, DepEd Central Office-initiated events and trainings, among others. A short "opening block" at the start of term covers orientation and health screenings.

School activities and legislated celebrations can no longer interrupt instruction under the new calendar. DepEd said in its guidelines that such events had frequently disrupted class time under the old system. 

Observances like Nutrition Month or National Heroes Day must now be woven into regular lessons rather than held as separate events.

If local holidays fall during the instructional block, schools must either shift to asynchronous learning or hold make-up classes during the end-of-term block. National-level competitions move to the break between school years.

Support programs like feeding and mental health services that need to run during teaching days must be scheduled outside class hours.

Fewer exams, longer stretches

The quarterly exam cycle will no longer be implemented in the new calendar. Instead, students will take two summative assessments per term plus a term examination in the final week of the instructional block. 

DepEd said the shift prioritizes "mastery and not simply breadth." 

Mandatory rest days

Students get a four-day wellness break within each term. Teachers get two, but only after completing end-of-term tasks.

DepEd's guidelines state that teachers "shall not be assigned instructional, administrative, or extracurricular duties during wellness breaks, except in cases of emergency or exigency of service."

Private schools, Philippine Schools Overseas, and state and local universities and colleges may adopt the trimester calendar but are not required to. Regardless, they must still meet the class-day requirements under Republic Act 7797 as amended by Republic Act 11480.