Back to school blues
Should we revert to the previous school calendar of June-March, with the summer break in April-May, or should we keep the current calendar of August-May, with the break — not necessarily in summer — in June-July? And, should we keep the calendar consistent for primary, secondary, and higher education institutions? In short, should season change be a factor at all in this?
According to the Department of Education, to go back to the pre-2020 calendar — which was pre-COVID — will require a transition period of three to five years. Frankly, I cannot think why the switch should take that long? The calendar and fiscal or budget year remains the same, and only the dates when schools start and end will change. Provisioning always followed the academic year.
House Bill 8550, filed recently at the House by party-list lawmakers, even suggests shortening academic year 2023-2024 (which starts late next month) so that academic year 2024-2025 can start by June next year. A possible consequence, if the required minimum 180 school days cannot be cut administratively, is a shortened summer break for teachers and students in 2024.
In the bill’s explanatory note, the authors claimed that the present academic calendar of August-May had negative effects on education quality and the health of students and teachers. They noted the Philippines adopted a “school calendar ill-suited to its climate.” Summer heat was cited as a deterrent to quality learning by 67% of over 11,000 public school teachers polled.
The August-May calendar was officially adopted by public and private schools in academic year 2020-2021, with DepEd Order No. 007 s. 2020 issued in response to COVID-19 lockdowns. The school calendar was said to have been adjusted to make way for health and safety precautions. At this point, obviously, COVID-19 is no longer a major factor in setting the school calendar.
In fairness to former Education Secretary Liling Briones, who ordered the calendar change in 2020, she was publicly opposed to shifting to an August-May calendar for primary and secondary schools until the pandemic hit. Her public statements in 2018 and 2019 cited the same reasons cited by teachers in opposing the calendar change.
In 2017 then Senator Francis Escudero, chair of the Senate Education Committee, filed Senate Bill 1432 to require schools to start the school year anytime from “the second Monday of August to the second Monday of September.” A similar bill, House Bill 5802, was filed at the House of Representatives by Rizal Rep. Michael John Duavit.
At the time, the arguments presented in favor of the calendar change was that top schools abroad usually opened in August or September, and that following this trend would benefit the Philippines. Moving the school opening to August or September would also make transition easier for students who wished to study abroad.
In his bill, Senator Escudero noted that “our engagement with the world’s top universities will be greatly facilitated with the alignment of our academic calendar with the rest of the world.” He added that we “need to engage with the top educational institutions of the world in order to benefit from their experience and expertise and hopefully raise the standards of our education.”
He also said that “the synchronization of the academic calendar will assist in the conduct of research between local and international universities as well as student participation in exchange programs designed eventually to benefit local education.” Also, schools were usually suspended anyway during the typhoon months of June and July.
As for the Duavit bill, the lawmaker cited data that 34 universities and colleges had already adopted the August-May academic calendar at that point, and thus all schools should already follow this. He also noted that the change in calendar was in line with ASEAN “economic integration,” and to encourage “student and faculty mobility, both at home and abroad.”
Duavit also asserted that since 34 universities and colleges have already shifted, then everybody else should already shift “to provide smooth transition from one level to another.” He added that a calendar shift would also boost the country’s “educational competitiveness” as it would help the Philippines attract a “pool of talented students and faculty,” presumably from other countries, and prepare students for “global integration and advancement.”
I have been opposing the calendar change as far back as 2018, and to this day I believe the academic year should follow the seasons. After all, in other countries, summer breaks are in summer, spring breaks are in spring, and winter breaks are in winter. Yet, in the Philippines, the so-called “summer” break is during the wet or rainy season.
The Philippine public school system has been in place for over 160 years, as instituted by the Educational Decree of 1863. From the Spanish to the American period, to the time of the Thomasites, and since then up until 2020, or three years ago, most schools started in June and ended in March. Until COVID-19 hit.
Even the Alliance of Concerned Teachers agree with the old calendar, noting that “the April-May school break is what suits our country best as the hottest months of the year are not conducive to learning, especially with our inadequate, cramped, and non-airconditioned classrooms. These are also the peak months for agricultural harvest, which we know that majority of our learners in the rural areas participate in.”
In shifting the school calendar to August-May in 2020, did we produce better graduates? Did our school system ensure academic excellence? Did our schools become more accessible, more affordable, and produce better educated and better skilled graduates? Did we meet the objectives stated in the bills of Senator Escudero and Congressman Duavit?
To all those who championed the change in the academic calendar, who chose to do away with the tradition and practice of the school system for over 155 years, was the shift in the academic calendar better for our children? COVID-19 aside, have we been producing school graduates that meet the needs of our country?
Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council
