About the Farm Schools Program

Republic Act No. 10618

Republic Act No. 10618 establishes farm schools as an alternative delivery mode of secondary education for the youth of farming and fishing communities. The law recognizes that many learners in agricultural areas face barriers to completing formal secondary education, and seeks to address this by integrating classroom instruction with actual, hands-on farm work.

Under the farm school model, students pursue the standard secondary curriculum while also gaining practical training in agricultural production, animal husbandry, and agribusiness — skills they can use immediately for livelihood, or build on through further studies in agriculture-related fields. Farm schools are typically established in partnership with local government units, cooperatives, or private landowners who provide land for the school's farm operations, with the Department of Education overseeing the academic program in coordination with agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform.

The overarching goal of the Act is to make quality secondary education more accessible and relevant to learners in farming and agricultural communities — turning farm work from a barrier to schooling into a core part of the learning experience itself.

The DepEd-NIR Farm Schools Initiative

The Department of Education – Negros Island Region (DepEd-NIR) oversees basic education across the provinces of Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and Siquijor. This website serves as the official public directory for Farm Schools operating under DepEd-NIR, giving each farm school its own public profile to showcase its programs, crops and livestock, activity schedules, and photo gallery — while giving school staff a simple way to keep that information up to date.

Each farm school listed here manages its own profile through a dedicated admin account, while DepEd-NIR maintains oversight of the full regional directory to ensure information stays accurate and every school is properly represented.