Acting Education Secretary Fe Agudo Hidalgo said the school calendar for 2005-2006, which started on June 6 last year, consists of 210 days, considered one of the longest, as indicated in DepEd Order No. 10, series of 2005.

Unlike in the previous school year when elementary schools opened one week earlier than high schools, both levels began simultaneously this school year, it was noted.

Hidalgo said school commencement exercises may be held any day after March 31 usually depending on arrangements made by school administrators, teachers, and parents of graduating students.

The DepEd acting chief reminded school principals and teachers to strictly follow agency policy in the staging of graduation rites which carry the common theme "Crossing the Thresholds: From Learning the Basics to Learning for Life."

Hidalgo said the policy, as stipulated in DepEd Order No. 9, series of 2006, prohibits, among other things, the collection of any graduation fee, the wearing of expensive graduation attire, the staging of the school year-end ceremony in costly venues, the imposition of non-academic project as a requirement for graduation, and the compulsory contribution for the annual yearbook.

Dr. Vilma Logronio Labrador, education assistant secretary for programs and projects, said school year 20052006 saw for the first time the DepEd conducting four national examinations designed to assess and evaluate the academic performance of public elementary and secondary school children.

Labrador identified the four examinations, all administered by the National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC), as the national achievement test (NAT) for all second year high school children last Feb. 16, the NAT for all Grade 6 pupils last March 7, the NAT for all high school senior students last March 14, the national assessment test for high school freshmen in relation to the DepEd "Bridge" program, and the national English and Filipino reading test for all Grade 3 pupils.

According to Labrador, results of the four examinations, to be evaluated by the NETRC, will be utilized by the education department to adopt appropriate ways and means to further improve the delivery of quality basic education in the nation’s more than 35,000 public elementary and secondary schools in 17 regions and 185 provincial and city schools divisions.