As a student who went through the Department of Education's Catch Up Fridays program, around January. We cannot agree that this program should be extended from elementary to senior high school pupils. Teachers are the ones who are suffering as a result of this scheme, as learning materials, funding, and student attendance are decreasing every Friday. According to TDC Chairperson Benjo Basas, "This is a symptom, not an illness." This may have occurred due to the necessity and passion to continue with a program that was not provided with adequate supplies. Students who lack time due to the shorter school year are struggling to keep up with Catch Up Fridays. Elementary pupils are unmotivated to attend school on Fridays because they believe that the DepEd educational program is boring and uninteresting. Teachers cannot prove this incorrectly because they lack resources, and some teachers use their personal funds solely to purchase gifts for pupils in order for them to attend school every Friday. This program needs to be studied again, and DepEd must ensure that teachers have adequate resources and that students are engaged in the program they intend to execute so that it runs smoothly.

  Catch up Friday doesn't help students very much since it makes them procrastinate all week long, which makes them rush to finish assignments at the end of the week. Studies conducted by educational psychologists like Piers Steel have demonstrated that students who procrastinate experience higher levels of stress and decreased academic performance. The amount of work that students have to complete each week may overwhelm them, causing them to produce lower-quality work on Fridays. Academic performance may additionally be hindered by the need to make up for missed assignments, which can cause anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. Relying solely on catch-up Fridays hinders the development of time management skills because it may not teach students how to prioritize work properly. Rather, a more equitable allocation of responsibility throughout the week enables students to better manage their time and preserve a more positive work-life balance. Students can engage in deeper learning and understanding of course materials throughout the week instead of relying solely on catch-up Fridays. Eliminating "catch up Fridays" also promotes a more proactive and involved learning environment by getting students to ask questions and get clarification on ideas earlier. All things considered, catch-up Fridays don't help students succeed academically and may even make them more stressed and prone to procrastination.

Additionally, a lot of articles and statements written by educators themselves that catch up on Fridays don't benefit students and actually impede the flow of instruction. and the link below will take you to an article of this type.

Reference:

https://mb.com.ph/2024/3/7/suspend-catch-up-fridays-dep-ed-told​

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/03/07/2338791/deped-urged-stop-catch-fridays-after-teachers-flag-drop-student-attendance

Catch-up Friday was implemented on January 12, 2024, which includes elementary and secondary high schools here in catch-up Friday. But the effects of catch-up Friday on young people are mostly not good results, for example, in the pursuit of activities because there is not enough time to do activities, and because of this, the students' grades are affected. Catch-up Friday does not help young people, especially nowadays when students are rushing to work. They only have stress and anxiety because of tasks that are not really supposed to be done, especially if they are not finished immediately on the set day, because the effect of this will be that their grade will be affected. In order to avoid suffering or to help each of us be able to read and learn, we need to be balanced in life and practice reading books when we have free time. Let's also learn to give ourselves time for activities that will help and improve everyone. The implementation of Catch-Up Friday as a means of managing student workload is ineffective. Alternatively, teachers ought to investigate different strategies that encourage proactive time management, deal with the underlying reasons of academic difficulties, and give students' academic progress and well-being top priority. By doing this, they can establish a learning environment that, over time, promotes long-term academic success and student satisfaction.