DepEd Unveils New Three-Term School Calendar in Basic Education

The Department of Education (DepEd) has set the opening of classes on June 8, 2026 under the country’s first trimester academic calendar, rolling out new guidelines that protect instructional time from school activities, celebrations, and government programs that it says have long reduced actual teaching days.

The school year will run until April 8, 2027, with 201 class days divided into three terms, each consisting of 55 to 57 instructional days.

Under the new setup, every term includes a protected teaching period of up to 62 days, while other activities such as report card distribution, parent-teacher meetings, trainings, and competitions are moved to designated end-of-term periods.

The new calendar replaces DepEd’s traditional four-quarter system, which the agency now considers a barrier to addressing students’ learning gaps, according to DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026.

In the order, DepEd said quarterly breaks and short assessment cycles “compress actual instructional time,” “fragment learning continuity,” and “increase teacher workload.”

According to the department, the trimester system is designed to give teachers longer uninterrupted classroom time and reduce the number of activities that often pull both students and teachers away from lessons.

Each term is divided into three parts: an instructional block, an end-of-term block, and an opening block.

The instructional block, lasting 55 to 62 days, is reserved almost entirely for teaching. The end-of-term block, lasting eight to 10 days, is allotted for non-teaching activities like parent-teacher conferences, competitions, and trainings initiated by the DepEd Central Office. A short opening block at the start of each term covers orientation and health screenings.

Under the new calendar, school activities and legislated celebrations will no longer interrupt instructional days. DepEd noted that such events had frequently disrupted class time under the old system.

Observances such as Nutrition Month and National Heroes Day must now be integrated into classroom lessons instead of being held as separate activities.

If local holidays fall during an instructional block, schools are required to either shift to asynchronous learning or conduct make-up classes during the end-of-term period. National-level competitions, meanwhile, will be scheduled during breaks between school years.

Support programs such as feeding initiatives and mental health services that need to be conducted during the term must be held outside class hours.

The quarterly exam cycle will also be removed. Instead, students will take two summative assessments per term, followed by a term examination during the final week of the instructional block.

DepEd said the change aims to prioritize “mastery and not simply breadth.”

Students will receive a four-day wellness break within each term. Teachers will have two wellness days, but only after completing their end-of-term duties.

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 they are not required to do so. However, all schools must still comply with the minimum class-day requirements under Republic Act 7797, as amended by Republic Act 11480.

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