A teachers’ group on Friday, June 9, urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to make adjustments in the school calendar for basic education to ensure the welfare of learners and school personnel. Students of Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Quezon City line up before going inside their classrooms on the first day of face-to-face classes on Aug. 22, 2022 (MARK BALMORES / MANILA BULLETIN) The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) is proposing to revert the school calendar to its pre-pandemic schedule to ensure that students learn in a conducive environment and that mandatory school breaks for teachers would not be sacrificed. TDC pointed out that when the push to adjust the school calendar a decade ago, they opposed the idea Its proponents then claimed that adjusting the school calendar would align the Philippines with the school cycle of other countries and the learners would not need to go to school during the rainy season. While the TDC stood against the idea of adjusting the school calendar, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the country to conduct face-to-face classes starting in late August 2022 to the middle of July 2023. “This school year, we had extreme heat in schools --- a terrible ordeal for both teachers and students,” TDC National Chairperson Benjo Basas said. As teachers and students fell ill, Basas noted that the heat spell forced many schools to switch back to “less-desirable” online and modular learning. “Classes were shortened for the same reason,” he added. Basas said that all of these were implemented to mitigate the impact of the heat which was also aggravated by “congested, poorly ventilated, and inadequately insulated classrooms. These alternative methods, TDC said, “adversely affect” learning that can never be recovered once missed since there is “simply no substitute for face-to-face classes.” While TDC recognized the recent pronouncements and decisions of the DepEd about this matter, Basas said that teachers are banking on “strategic solutions” such as reducing class size and building more classrooms designed for the Philippine climate --- among others. On rationalizing the timing of the school year, TDC formally asked DepEd to consider reverting the school calendar to the original scheme as an immediate step.

For DepEd’s consideration

Among the proposals of TDC is for the start of classes for the next school year or School Year (SY) 2023-2024 to be set on Aug. 28 which will allow for a 46-day school break and the end to be set on April 27, 2024. With this, the group said the total number of school days will be 193 including 33 Saturdays of asynchronous classes. TDC is also proposing that the remaining 14 days be treated as leave credit or paid vacation or sick leave to be “availed as needed” by individual teachers. This, the group explained, would complete the average 60-day school break. To accomplish this, TDC said the Civil Service Commission (CSC) may “need to draw pertinent policies.” Another proposal is for the SY 2024-2025 to start on June 17, 2024, with 44 days of school break, and to end on April 11, 2025, or 198 days. To complete the average of 60-day school break, TDC said the remaining 16 days shall be treated as leave credit or paid vacation or sick leave. “In this scheme, the DepEd could ensure that by SY 2024-2025, we would have reverted to our old school calendar with minimal adjustments, and without sacrificing the mandatory school break for teachers,” TDC said. By SY 2025-2026, TDC said that the schools would have fully reverted to the original June-March school calendar which, the group claimed, has “worked for the country ever since.” “We hope that this proposal from the collective wisdom of our teachers and school administrators will receive the proper consideration it merits,” Basas said.