REDUCING SCHOOL CELEBRATIONS AND NON-INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES AND MAXIMIZING TIME FOR LEARNING
1. In pursuit of the DepEd
goals of raising the academic standards of basic education and
enhancing administrative efficiency in the delivery of educational
services, the general policy shall be to lessen non-teaching duties of
teachers and unnecessary non-instructional activities in schools and to
maximize time for learning. Efforts should be exerted to meet the required number of school days and instructional time.
2. Guided by this basic policy, the following specific measures shall be adopted:
a. Classes
should not be suspended even while there are school celebrations of
important historical events of significant occasions. Discussions
on the significance of these events or occasions such as United Nations
Day, Arbor Day, School Nutrition Month, Environment Month, AIDS
Awareness Day, etc., should be integrated in related subject areas
during the regular classroom discussions.b. Similarly, with regard to national programs which DepEd
is expected to support, integration in regular classroom discussions in
the relevant subjects shall serve as the mode of imparting important
messages to students. The holding of contests in schools to support such programs shall be minimized.c. Co-curricular
activities, regular meetings of school clubs and organizations and
competitions are allowed to be conducted in the school after class hours
or during a period designating for student activities by the School
Head and under the guidance of the teacher adviser, if any. Activities that will take one or two days to conduct such as BSP/GSP encampments, school sports competition and other related activities should be conducted during weekends or during summer. Enrichment
and remediation classes shall be encouraged to support teaching and
learning, and may be conducted during the period to be determined by the
School Head.d. In-service
training programs, symposia, conferences and the like should be
scheduled during summer except the monthly school-or-school
cluster-based in-service training which should be held after class hours
or during weekends.e. Attendance to local schools press conferences should be limited to schools with a school paper.
f. Make-up
classes should be held on weekends to meet the required number of
school days to compensate for the hosting of national or regional school
activities; town fiesta celebrations; local public holidays; and
localized suspension of classes due to, among others, typhoons and other
calamities.
3. For
proper synchronization of activities at the regional and division
levels, the Regional Office should initiate the preparation of a master
plan of activities for the whole school year to be issued to the field
for their reference and guidance.
4. Immediate dissemination of this Order is desired.
Adopted: 31 May 2002
(SGD). RAUL S. ROCO
Secretary