Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said that students in public schools will not be mandated to wear uniforms for the upcoming school year 2022-2023.
Duterte said the decision was aimed to lessen the burden of students and families amid the continuous increase of prices of basic commodities and loss of livelihood due to the pandemic.
“Even before the pandemic, it is not a strict requirement for public schools to wear uniforms (DepEd Order No. 065, s. 2010) to avoid incurring additional costs to the families of our learners,” Duterte said in a statement.
“All the more that it will not be required this school year given the increasing prices and economic losses due to the pandemic,” she added.
The official start of school year 2022-2023 will be on August 22.
Duterte added that the combined face-to-face classes and distance learning would start from August to October, while the five-day face-to-face classes would commence in November.
— Ronald Espartinez