TL;DR: A class program is a school timetable, and DepEd governs it by setting floors rather than dictating a single grid. For Grades 3 to 10, DepEd Order No. 012, s. 2024 gives schools two ready-made options and lets them propose their own, provided learning contact time is at least five hours and 30 minutes a day, English, Mathematics, Science and GMRC or Values Education get at least 225 minutes a week, EPP/TLE, MAPEH, Araling Panlipunan and Filipino at least 200 minutes a week, and the Homeroom Guidance Program at least 45 minutes a week. Any proposed combination needs the schools division superintendent's approval. Senior High is programmed differently, in hours per subject, under DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026.
Anyone who has tried to build one knows the class program is where curriculum policy meets the number of rooms you have. This guide covers the rules that constrain it: what the current issuances require for Grades 3 to 10, how Senior High programming works now that the curriculum has been restructured, and the small print that trips schools up. It explains the policy; it is not a template and there is nothing here to download.
What a Class Program Is
The class program is the schedule that assigns every learning area to time blocks across the week, matched to teachers and rooms. It is the operational output of three separate things: the curriculum's prescribed time allotment, the school calendar, and the school's own staffing and facilities. Change any one and the programme has to be rebuilt.
DepEd does not publish one national timetable. It publishes minimum time allotments and a set of permitted patterns, then leaves the arrangement to the school subject to division approval where a school departs from the standard options.
Disclaimer: this is an explainer. Time allotments and scheduling options are set in DepEd orders and their annexes, and divisions issue their own implementing guidance. Confirm anything operational with your schools division office before building a programme on it.
Grades 3 to 10: The Governing Issuance
The MATATAG Curriculum was rolled out under DepEd Order No. 010, s. 2024, whose Annexes I and II carry the time allotments for elementary and secondary education. Those annexes were amended barely five months later by DepEd Order No. 012, s. 2024, issued 18 September 2024, after schools reported that a single fixed pattern did not survive contact with real staffing and classroom shortages.
DO 012 is therefore the issuance to read for class programming. It adds flexibility for Grades 3 to 10 in consideration of school context, including typology, curricular programme offerings, and the availability of teachers and classrooms.
Option A. All learning areas are given 45 minutes a day each for five days, and the Homeroom Guidance Program 45 minutes once a week.
Option B. Learning areas may be given uniform time allotments of 50, 55 or 60 minutes per learning area, distributed as follows:
| Frequency | Learning areas |
|---|---|
| Five times a week | English, Mathematics, Science, GMRC / Values Education |
| Four times a week | EPP / TLE, MAPEH, Araling Panlipunan, Filipino |
| Once a week | Homeroom Guidance Program |
A school-proposed combination. Where neither option is applicable, a school may propose another combination, provided that:
- learning contact time is at least five hours and 30 minutes a day;
- English, Mathematics, Science and GMRC / Values Education get not less than 225 minutes per week;
- EPP / TLE, MAPEH, Araling Panlipunan and Filipino get not less than 200 minutes per week; and
- the Homeroom Guidance Program gets not less than 45 minutes per week.
The proposal is subject to the approval of the schools division superintendent or an authorised representative, and DO 012 directs schools division offices to provide technical assistance to schools in preparing class programs. It also tells schools to ensure fair and equitable distribution of teaching loads while protecting teacher welfare.
One structural change from that period still shows up directly in the grid: DO 012 provided that the Mother Tongue shall continue to be implemented as the medium of teaching and learning but shall no longer be offered as a subject. The subject half of that still holds. The medium half does not. Republic Act No. 12027, which lapsed into law on 10 October 2024, discontinued the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3, and DepEd Order No. 020, s. 2025, issued 3 July 2025, made Filipino and English the primary media of instruction for Kindergarten to Grade 3 beginning School Year 2025-2026, with Filipino Sign Language for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners under RA 11106 and regional languages as auxiliary media used through translanguaging. DO 020 expressly rescinds the Key Stage 1 language provisions of DO 010, s. 2024 and repeals or modifies other issuances inconsistent with it, so the DO 012 language paragraph no longer describes current policy. A monolingual class, where the learners share one first language, may still use that mother tongue as its medium where DepEd's readiness criteria are met, including an official orthography published by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino. Our MATATAG Curriculum guide covers the wider redesign, and the curriculum guides hub links the learning area documents.
Senior High: A Different Unit of Measurement
DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026, the Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum, signed 4 June 2026, programmes Senior High in hours per subject across the year, not minutes per week. That is the first thing to internalise, because it changes how you build the timetable.
The order also restructured what you are scheduling. It amends DO 021, s. 2019 on secondary education and DO 030, s. 2017 on work immersion, and moves Senior High from a track-and-strand structure to two tracks, Academic and Technical-Professional, with clusters of Electives. The 2016 curriculum's Applied and Specialized subject categories do not appear in the new structure at all: there are Core Subjects and Electives. There are now five Core Subjects, offered in Grade 11 only at 160 instructional hours each, and none in Grade 12. Personal Development is not among them; DO 017's teacher assignment table lists teachers who handled Personal Development among those who may be assigned to the new Life and Career Skills subject.
The order's own class programming section gives suggested weekly patterns:
| Subject | Suggested time allotment |
|---|---|
| Core Subject (160 hours) | 1.5 hours four times a week; or 1 hour five times a week plus 30 minutes asynchronous; or 1 hour four times a week plus 1.5 hours asynchronous |
| Academic Elective, 80 hours | 2 hours a day four times a week; or 1.5 hours five times a week plus 30 minutes asynchronous; or 1 hour five times a week plus 3 hours asynchronous |
| Academic Elective, 160 hours | 4 hours a day four times a week |
| Tech-Pro Elective (320 hours), Grade 11 | 2.5 hours a day five times a week; or 2 hours a day four times a week plus 1 hour asynchronous |
| Tech-Pro Elective, Grade 12 | 6 hours a day five times a week |
| Homeroom Guidance Program | At least 1 hour a week |
The asynchronous variants are recommended for schools implementing double shifts, and DO 017 requires that such sessions be reflected in both the class program and the teachers' schedules as part of teaching load. Whatever pattern is chosen, the prescribed hours per subject must still be met, and a learner's total weekly load shall not exceed 40 hours.
Class size interacts with programming, since exceeding it forces additional sections. DO 017 sets a maximum of 40 learners per class for Core Subjects, 30 for Academic Electives and 25 for Tech-Pro Electives, while allowing larger classes where enrolment or facilities make compliance impossible, with the school head authorised to create additional sections subject to capacity and teacher availability. Our Strengthened SHS Curriculum guide works through the tracks, clusters and graduation requirements.
The Calendar Constraint
A class program is meaningless without the calendar it sits in. DO 017, s. 2026 states that all public schools implementing either the 2016 K to 12 SHS Curriculum or the Strengthened Curriculum shall adopt a three-term school calendar beginning SY 2026-2027, in accordance with DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026. Private schools are highly encouraged to adopt it, but may retain a two-semester institutional calendar provided the prescribed total instructional hours for both Core Subjects and Electives are strictly met. Private schools may also offer institutional subjects and set their own hours for them, provided those sit on top of the required hours and total weekly hours including institutional subjects do not exceed 40.
Our DepEd school calendar guide covers the term structure itself.
Common Mistakes
- Building from an old annex. DO 010, s. 2024's time allotments were amended by DO 012, s. 2024. Working from the unamended annex produces a programme that no longer matches policy.
- Treating the options as suggestions. The 225 / 200 / 45 minute floors and the 5-hour-30-minute daily contact time are minimums for a school-proposed combination, not targets.
- Skipping division approval. A proposed combination outside the two options needs the schools division superintendent's approval.
- Scheduling Core Subjects in Grade 12. Under DO 017, s. 2026 the five Core Subjects are Grade 11 only.
- Forgetting asynchronous time in the load. DO 017 requires it to appear in both the class program and the teacher's schedule.
- Leaving a Mother Tongue subject slot in the grid, or still treating it as the Key Stage 1 medium. It is not a subject, and since RA 12027 and DepEd Order No. 020, s. 2025 it is no longer the default medium of instruction either. Filipino and English are, with the mother tongue optional in qualifying monolingual classes.
- Assuming the grading file matches. Term structure feeds straight into the class record. Our e-class record explainer covers what changed there.
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Sources
- DepEd Order No. 012, s. 2024 - Amendment to DepEd Order No. 010, s. 2024 (PDF)
- DepEd Order No. 010, s. 2024 - Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of the MATATAG Curriculum (PDF)
- DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026 - Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum
- DepEd Order No. 020, s. 2025 - Policy on the Medium of Instruction for Kindergarten to Grade 3 Effective School Year 2025-2026 (PDF)
- Republic Act No. 12027 - discontinuing the use of the mother tongue as medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3 (LawPhil, official text)
- DepEd - MATATAG
- SchoolFinderPH - MATATAG Curriculum Guide
- SchoolFinderPH - Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum
- SchoolFinderPH - DepEd School Calendar
