MANILA, Philippines — A new bill has been filed at the House of Representatives proposing a return to the traditional June to March school calendar, which was followed in the country for several years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
House Bill 8550, filed by Makabayan lawmakers on Monday, aims to bring back the old calendar to address the adverse effects on students and teachers caused by classes conducted in April and May.
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A tropical country like the Philippines had adopted a “school calendar ill-suited to its climate,” according to the bill’s explanatory note, which led to “temperatures sweltering, blood pressures rising, and children and teachers fainting.”
“The intolerable heat in cramped classrooms has led to a worrisome drop in attendance and, for those who persevered in staying in class, had a hard time concentrating and understanding the lessons,” read the bill, which was filed by Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers), Rep. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela Women’s Party) and Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist).
For years, the Department of Education (DepEd) chose not to synchronize its calendar with the new academic calendar in higher education, which the Commission on Higher Education recommended for state universities in 2019 to cover the same period as the government’s fiscal year.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DepEd had to postpone the class opening from June to October in 2020 when it transitioned to blended learning. Since then, DepEd has scheduled class openings in August.
In a statement, Castro also said that the shift to the June to March school calendar will benefit the country's agriculture sector by allowing the youth to participate in farming activities during the planting season.
"The return to the June to March school calendar will not only improve the quality of education but will also benefit our farmers by allowing students to participate in planting and harvesting activities during the appropriate season," she said.
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Logistics of changing school calendars
To address the possible logistical issue of an earlier class opening, the proposed measure aims to shorten the next academic year – School Year 2023-2024 – to allow classes to start in June by School Year 2024-2025.
“Under this proposal, the school year will start on the first Monday of June but not later than the last day of August, with a particular provision for a June opening for School Year 2024-2025 which will ensure the urgent return to the pre-pandemic calendar upon the passage of this Act,” the bill read.
With an “early close” of School Year 2023-2024 on the fourth week of May 2024, which cuts the school year a few days shy of the 180 days of “non-negotiable contact time” required by DepEd, teachers would still be given at least a week of rest in between the two school years, the measure read.
The measure also requires teachers to be given “some form of remuneration for the work done during their lost vacation months,” it read.
The country's largest teachers group, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, found in a survey conducted in late March that 67% of the 11,706 public school teachers polled experienced "intolerable heat" inside their classrooms.
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The same teacher survey also found that class sizes have mostly (62%) returned to pre-pandemic levels with an average of 35 to 50 students per classroom.
In response to reports of teachers and students falling ill due to the heat, DepEd issued a memorandum in April reiterating its policy of allowing schools to shift to blended learning during “unfavorable weather conditions.”
DepEd Spokesperson Michael Poa has also said that DepEd will form a group that will study proposals to revert to the old academic calendar, given that there were also previous concerns raised about students’ plight during typhoons in the rainy season.
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