weeks, from late May until mid-June, in between the two school terms. The year-end holidays last for six weeks, from mid-November until early January, in between two school years. Each school term has a mid-term break; one week in March for the first semester and one week in the months of August or September (variable) for the second semester. Schools are closed on national and state public holidays. Schools are allowed to have a few special holidays without replacement for events such as school anniversary and sports day. For festivities such as Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year and Deepavali, schools usually apply for additional holidays to allow longer breaks for students to visit relatives in their hometowns. However, every day missed exceeding the special holiday allowance would be replaced by having classes on weekends. Philippines In the Philippines, until 2020 there were three breaks: summer break (at the end of the 4th quarter) started from the late March or early April and usually ended in June, semestral break (at the end of the 2nd quarter) started from late October ending in early November, and Christmas break (at the end of the 3rd quarter) lasted from mid-December to early January. After the 1st quarter the National Heroes' Day weekend, a 3-day long weekend including the last Monday of August, was also taken. Since 2020, the summer or mid-year break begins from early June till late August and is also known as the Independence Day break as Independence Day, June 12, now falls during the mid year vacation. With the move of the calendar for most schools, an additional break, Easter break was added, corresponding to Holy Week up to Easter Sunday. The other vacation breaks remain as usual. However, the school year has begun shifting back to its original June-March model as the pandemic has gradually calmed down at least for many public schools. For universities and colleges, the four breaks in their collegiate calendar closely match those of the national basic education calendar until 2022. Since 2016-17, most of these higher learning institutions begin their year in August or September, matching the Western calendar. Event-based holidays are declared by the President (for national holidays) and the provincial governor or city mayor for local holidays through the Department of Education (DepEd) for Basic Education and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for colleges and universities. Singapore In Singapore, there are four