There’s a petition by private school heads in Manila and southern Tagalog to change the school opening month to September. Having gone through a series of weather disturbances since January this year, plus frequent flooding in many areas, the school heads seem to have a strong argument for such change. In addition, they say, September is the start of the academic year in the States and in Europe, hence, by resetting our schedule we will be synchronizing this with the school term of western countries, a welcomed situation certainly for foreign students studying in this country.
Actually, the call for the September opening of Philippine schools has surfaced a number of times in the past. The most recent of this was that of Senator Manny Villar who sponsored Senate Bill 565 seeking to change the school calendar from June to March to September to May. Poor weather condition in June and in the months before or after it was also cited as a reason for revising the school calendar. He also mentioned the prevalence of respiratory diseases during the rainy season which afflict many school-going kids, along with the threat to their safety occasioned by flash floods and landslides.
There’s no doubt these are strong arguments supportive of starting classes in September. The question however is, are weather disturbances less prevalent in the three-month period from September to November?
In 2008 PAGASA reported 13 typhoons and tropical depressions to have hit the country from September 8 to November 12. In contrast, the number of typhoons and disturbances from June to August in the same year was only 11. From this, one can see that there were even more storms and depressions from September to November than there were from June to August in the same year..
That’s for 2008, but what’s the profile of the weather abnormalities in 2007? In that year 16 typhoons raged in northern parts of the country from September to November, while only 7 did so from June to August. Considering these data the poor-weather argument to change the school calendar is therefore a faulty one!
There’s one important point to remember about Philippine typhoons: Most of them make their landfall in southern and northern Luzon and only very few in the Visayas and Mindanao. The implication is that while strong winds and flood waters have been harassing the people in the northern sector of the country, this is seldom happening in the central and southern parts.
To recall, the last major typhoon in the Visayas was Ruping which struck in December 1990. Before that there was one in the early 1980s – was it Narsing? – which caused extensive damage to crops and properties. In between these there were minor atmospheric turbulences but these had only negligible impacts in these areas. Last week for example, typhoon Isang ravaged northern Luzon creating a swath of destruction including extensive flooding in Metro Manila. But in the Visayas the weather was fine except for intermittent shower and mild gustiness.
To change the school calendar in the entire country just because students in Manila and certain parts of Luzon find it difficult to attend classes during June and succeeding months is therefore not justifiable. If at all there would be such change, it should not be made applicable to other parts of the archipelago such as Visayas and Mindanao, but only to the school system in the north.
But why is Villar’s proposal inclusive of the entire country? Has the good Senator forgotten that Manila and its environs do not make up the entire country? In fairness to the Senator, however, he is not alone in this kind of mental trap. Many Manila-based decision makers commit similar blunder. Take the DepEd leadership. In the last several decades has it not coerced school kids in the Visayas and Mindanao to learn their lessons in Tagalog? There’s no law that says Tagalog should be the medium of teaching and learning, yet teachers and students all these years have been forced to internalize this language because of the mistaken notion that what is good for Tagalogs is good for all Filipinos.
Change the school opening calendar? There are more reasons not to do so, especially when considering the weather condition of the country. Opening classes in September can expose school children to more foul weather and therefore to more risky situations than doing it in June. The prudent thing is to let the current calendar remain as it is. Or have a pilot-testing of the proposed change in selected schools. Then if the results warrant, this innovation can be adopted also in selected areas.
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Email: edioko_uv@yahoo.com