Philippine public schools open new academic year with three-term calendar

Public schools across the Philippines opened the 2026-2027 academic year on Monday, June 8, under a new three-term calendar. The Department of Education is requiring public schools to adopt the three-term system while making it optional for private schools this year.

The first week will focus on orientation sessions, learner profiling, baseline assessments, and administrative tasks rather than lessons. The department said the calendar change aims to protect instructional time amid ongoing learning recovery efforts.

Enrollment and assessment results The Department of Education projects 26 million to 28 million total enrollees in public and private schools. End-of-year literacy assessments from the previous school year showed 48 percent of learners were grade-level ready or independent readers.

A pilot Senior High School Literacy and Numeracy Assessment conducted in March found most Grade 11 students had difficulty reading and understanding grade-level texts.

Additional policy changes The department will also implement simplified lesson planning and a revised grading system requiring a raw score of 70 to 72.99 for a passing grade of 75. The Strengthened Senior High School Program will be implemented nationwide, and the Matatag curriculum will begin for Grades 3, 6, and 9.

The 2026 national budget allocated P1.34 trillion to the education sector, with P1.015 trillion going to the Department of Education. About P65 billion of the department's budget will fund construction of 24,000 new classrooms to address a shortage reported at 165,000 as of 2025.