DepEd chief: Moving start of classes to September will only benefit some areas
KIMBERLY JANE TAN, GMA NewsAugust 14, 2012 3:30pm 61 4 2 1307

Tags: Department of Education
Moving the opening of classes to September will only benefit some areas and not the entire country, Department of Education Secretary Armin Luistro said Tuesday.

"When I looked at the data it looks like there is very little additional advantage, benefit for schools if you look at things nationwide," Luistro said at a Senate hearing on the K to 12 basic education program.

Luistro said that proposals to move the opening of classes from June to September will probably just benefit the National Capital Region (NCR).

"Obviously we cannot have a different start of the school year recognizing that the country may have different ways of experiencing the weather," he said.

"I think the benefit of moving it to September may be confined to maybe NCR and a few other regions, but that may not necessarily translate to additional safety realities for the other regions," he added.

Two climate types

PAGASA acting deputy administrator for research and development Flaviana Hilario explained that the country has two climate types:

Western areas of the country such as the NCR and Central Luzon fall under type 1 climate, which experiences rain from May to September.

Eastern areas such as Aurora and the Bicol region experience type 2 climate, with their rainy season lasting from October to January.

"So makikita natin baliktad yung kanilang peak ng rainy season. Kung magbabago tayo ng opening of classes then yung isang side yung nasa eastern side mag-uumpisa sila na nandun yung peak ng rainy season," she said.

"Based ito sa historical data natin or yung 30-year period natin...halos di nagbabago 'yung mga areas na iyan," she added.

Luistro said that the DepEd already attempted to move the start of classes to September in the 1970s, but that it didn't work out because of a similar problem.

The DepEd chief added that long holidays often fall during the summer months, including Holy Week and the Flores de Mayo.

He also said that it is during the summer months that families in agricultural areas ask their younger members to help out in the harvest.

"That has been brought to our attention the last time we consulted our stakeholders," he said.

The matter, says Luistro, will have to be discussed further among DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

According to Luistro, there is no uniform date in the start of classes in the ASEAN region.

"Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore start in January. The only other country that starts in September is Laos. Cambodia in October. Indonesia in July. Myanmar in June like the Philippines, Thailand in May [and] Vietnam in August," he said. - BM, GMA News

Moving class opening to Sept poses more problems, solon says
CANDICE MONTENEGRO, GMA NewsJune 11, 2011 12:02am 8 6 0 638 Moving the school opening from June to September to avoid the rainy season will pose more problems for the Department of Education (DepEd), a congressman said on Friday.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said those who propose to move the school opening to September fail to take into consideration that students would then have to go to class during the months of March, April and May.

Tinio said the scorching summer heat will not be conducive to studying.

“Alam naman natin ang conditions ng public schools - overcrowded classrooms and inadequate ventilation. The conditions will be inhumane and not [be] conducive for learning for students," he told GMA News Online.

After the strong rains brought by tropical depression Dodong on Thursday morning — the fourth day of classes this school year — the DepEd suspended classes in elementary and high school.

On Thursday, several lawmakers again brought up the proposal to move the opening of classes from June to September. A report on GMA News TV's “State of the Nation" on Thursday said DepEd data shows that almost a month's worth of classes are lost because of class suspensions due to typhoons.

In a statement, DepEd said it is open to discussions on the proposal of Congress to move the opening of classes to Sept. “We are open to anything that would help ensure the comfort of our school children," said DepEd Communications Unit head Kenneth Tirado.

Storms, floods seldom nationwide

However, Tinio said that typhoons and floods only affect some parts of the country, so there is no need to adjust the school year and involve all schools and students nationwide.

In contrast, the entire country experiences the scorching heat during the summer season, he said.

Tinio said several years ago, the DepEd, under then Secretary Jesli Lapus, made a survey among school officials and teachers, and a majority said they were not in favor of moving the school opening to Sept. because of the same reason.

“Typhoons and floods usually [only affect] Metro Manila and certain parts of Central Luzon," he said. “In many parts of the country, the situation is not like that. That’s one reason why the proposal has never really gotten past informal discussions."

Fix flood control in school areas instead

Instead of moving the class opening to Sept., he said the DepEd and other line agencies should instead focus on fixing the infrastructure of schools and roads in urban areas like Metro Manila where flooding usually occurs.

“Fix the infrastructure and drainage and fix the flood control," he said. “If that’s fixed, going to school when it's raining should not be a problem."

Meanwhile, some groups continue to lobby for the proposal to move the school opening from June to Sept.

Classrooms as evacuation centers during floods

Eleazardo Kaslag, president of Federation of Association of Private School and Administrator, said in the same report on “State of the Nation" that classes in public schools are interrupted during the rainy season, especially when classrooms are used as evacuation centers.

“Hindi naman basta-basta mapapaalis [ang evacuees] the following day. They stay there for a week, on some occasions for half a month," he said.

Kaslag added that public school students get left behind by private school students, whose classes go on as usual.

Even weather bureau PAGASA said they are amenable to the proposal to move the opening of classes to September, saying that after tropical depression Dodong, eight more typhoons are expected to hit the country between June and August this year. — MRT, GMA News

Miyerkules, Agosto 03 2011
June to September
The moving of classes from June to September will be a hard thing not only for the students but also for the government officials like DepEd. This will be a hard task for them. It will consume lots of time.

From June to September, first, it will be hard to adjust the opening classes with that long period of time between them. The four months between them is already a long time. Second, the month of the vacation of the students will be July and August, the months for rainy seasons. Storms, floods, heavy rains, how can a children enjoy their vacation with that conditions. It's a hard time for them to have a time for their family bonding and outdoor activities. Third, if the classes were moved, the students will not experience summer. During summer, swimming in beaches, having a picnic with the family, playing in seashores, going to Boracay and making sand castles are better than studying during this hot season.

The moving of classes will have a great effect on students activities. It also needs some adjustment in the part of the students and also the teachers.
Church officials against proposal to move start of classes
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Sunday, October 2, 2011
MANILA -- A church official is not in favor of moving the opening of classes from June to September, saying destructive typhoons happen in the latter part of the year.
“If you remember, Ondoy and Pedring struck September. The typhoons are more powerful in the latter part of the year, which I think will be more detrimental to students,” Monsignor Pedro Quitorio III, media director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said.
Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas also expressed opposition to the proposal.
The chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education is convinced that the move would not serve its purpose of sparing students from going to school during the rainy season because of the erratic weather patterns.
“It’s because of the climate change…if you remember, Typhoon Ondoy struck around September or October,” Villegas said.
Senate committee on finance chairman Senator Franklin Drilon and vice chairman Senator Edgardo Angara earlier directed Education Secretary Armin Luistro to study proposals to move the opening of classes.
Drilon said moving the opening of classes to September could lessen the disruption of classes due to bad weather. (FP/Sunnex)

What can you say about Sen. Franklin Drilon's proposal to move the opening of classes from June to September? Updated August 22, 2010 - 12:00am 0 0 googleplus0 0
Carmela Ramento, Cagayan de Oro City: We had this experiment before and it did not work. Let us not revive anything that has been proven to be a failure.
Elpidio Que, Vigan: Most students cannot wade through flashfloods. I agree with Sen. Drilon to move the opening of school classes from June to September to avoid getting into such situations.
Getting worse
Felix Ramento, USA: This is long overdue. The rainy season is getting worse that skipping it will be good for everybody.
Robert Young Jr., San Juan: I’m in favor of moving the school opening to September so students will avoid missing classes during the months of June and July, which is typhoon season. We must be the only country left opening classes in June.
Ignacio Anacta, Metro Manila: Changing a tradition is always difficult, but I hope that what is in the heart and mind of Sen. Franklin Drilon is for the improvement of our educational system and would be beneficial to majority of our students.
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Moving opening of classes from June to September

The proposal by Senator Franklin Drilon to move the opening of classes from June to September under Senate Bill No. 2407 in 2010 is mainly “to prevent class disruptions due to the rainy season.” Thus, the education department said that it would welcome any proposal that could help improve the learning conditions of the students. But whether or not to move the opening of classes to September one major considerations would be the comfort of school children while they are in school said DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro.
Actually, this is the second time around that the proposal to move the opening of classes from June to September is being pushed. Decades ago, during the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal, the same proposal was made for the same reason that the opening of classes should not fall during the rainy months. In fact, then Secretary of Education Alejandro Roces has initially implemented it by moving the opening of classes to July for the first year of implementation, August for the second year and finally the month of September for the full implementation within three years. But for some reasons, it was not pushed through reason why it is back to the month of June now.
Those who argued against the proposal, however, emphasized that the summer months of April and May when the children would be in school should the opening of classes be moved to September is usually a time of family bonding where clans celebrate family reunions, fiesta celebrations, the Holy Week, town fiestas, Flores de Mayo and town and barrio fiestas because of the fair weather condition. Furthermore, students usually work during summer months to earn for use at the opening of classes or for extra income.
However, if the proposal is basically to give comfort and convenience to students in Metro Manila and provinces in Luzon it would be unfair for students in the Visayas and Mindanao where the period of rainy season is different from that of Metro Manila. In Eastern Visayas, for instance, the rainy season starts late November and usually last until the middle of February. The typhoon months is November and December. The proposal would only be favoring students of Metro Manila and some provinces of Luzon.