SENATE Majority Leader Joel Villanueva called on the Department of Education to ensure that the adjustment of the school calendar will not reduce the length of school days.

“We thank the Department of Education for heeding the call to be more flexible and adaptive in determining school calendar days and prioritizing the welfare of the students,” Villanueva said.

The senator explained that this is why they authored and co-sponsored Republic Act No. 11480 during the 18th Congress to give the agency the flexibility to adjust the school calendar based on necessity, especially now that the country is experiencing the effects of El Niño.

Villanueva stressed that they don’t want a repeat of what happened to the 120 students in Laguna who were hospitalized due to heat exhaustion during a fire drill last year.

“However, we must ensure that this adjustment does not reduce the length of the school calendar mandated by law, which is a minimum of 200 days,” the senator stressed.

Additionally, the lawmaker is hoping that there will be synchronicity between the DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education.

“There must be no lull time for students who are transitioning from secondary to tertiary levels. We urge the CHED and other Higher Education Institutions to consider this change so that the students will not lose their momentum in studying and no time will be wasted for them to learn,” he said.