EDITORIAL - Leave school out of the flood problem

When floods cause disruptions in the school calendar, you solve the problem by finding solutions to the flooding, not by changing the school calendar, which is what Senator Franklin Drilon is proposing.

Drilon wants to move the opening of the schoolyear to September, ostensibly to avoid the onset of the rainy season, which coincides with the current school opening in June. Either Drilon wants to cash in on the publicity generated by recent floods, or he knows not what he speaks of.

Climate change has been skewing up weather patterns everywhere such that it can be rainy in summer and sunny when it should be raining. Storms can suddenly dissipate while the monsoon can be worse than a typhoon.

As these unpredictable changes happen, it is just unfortunate that school calendars can sometimes get skewed as the weather. But until some fool-proof means can be devised to accurately predict the weather, it is best to let classes be if you can’t guarantee the consequences.

It is strongly suspected that the proposal of Drilon does not carry with it a provision on what to do in case the weather patterns shift and start flooding in September. Will Drilon then take responsibility for any unforeseen challenges his bright idea may encounter?

There is a certain foolhardiness in trying to introduce legislation based on something as unpredictable as weather. What a great tragedy if, all things being equal, the good Drilon wants to do instead turns into something so bad and irreversible.

If it is the flooding that really bothers Drilon, clearly the solution would be to solve the flooding. Tampering with human schedules to conform to the fickleness of the weather will wreak havoc on all human activities.

In the case of the recent floods, the school calendar was not the only thing disrupted. Work schedules in both the private and public sectors were affected as well. Would Drilon seek to revise their schedules as well or move for greater political will to stem the floods?