FIRST SAY:
Silence is golden. The old adage may be true, but would you buy a “recording” with absolutely nothing on it? Apparently, some people would. Here are a few examples of silent “music”… proof that you can sell anything.
UN-CAGED. “The highly eccentric American composer, John Cage, is responsible for composing a sheet music for his extremely quiet opus ‘4 minutes 33 seconds’ which is exactly that much silence. The sheet music is blank and just tells you how long not to play.”
— The Worst Entertainment. Adapted by Uncle John’s Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader.
Newly minted Senate President Francis Escudero has commented on the new school calendar, starting from July 29, 2024 to April 15, 2025, which was approved by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently.
The calendar has 182 days of schooling, with no Saturday classes.
The Palace said in its announcement that the country will start reverting to the pre-pandemic education schedule.
The President reached his decision last Tuesday when he met with Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte and several officials of the Department of Education to discuss the options for the implementation of the June to March school calendar, starting with the 2024-2025 school year.
Vice President Duterte discussed two options with Marcos – 182 school days with 15 in-person Saturday classes, or 167 school days, with no in-person Saturday classes. Both options will end on March 31, 2025.
She said the DepEd discussed the proposed school calendars with teachers, school officials, and parents. The current school year is set to end on May 31.
According to Senate President Escudero, the government should be decisive on this. He recalled that the school calendar was changed because of the heavy rains and floods that were experienced by both the
students and teachers when we were following the old calendar with school opening in June. Now that we changed it, Escudero said, it was not anticipated that the El Nino would cause this much heat, drought and lack of electricity, so that the Department of Education and the Palace had to tweak the school calendar anew.
Meanwhile, the Teachers Dignity Coalition welcomed Marcos’ decision, saying although it does not jive with its proposal that classes end on April 11 next year, the new schedule is fine with the group.
The President, who prefers not to conduct classes on Saturdays, felt the 167-day school calendar was “too short” and significantly reduces the number of school days and contact time between teachers and learners which may compromise learning outcomes.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said Marcos “did not want students going to school on Saturdays” to complete the 182-day school calendar as it could jeopardize the well-being of students and demand more resources.
As a “compromise,” the PCO said the President opted to extend the school year until April with no Saturday classes to complete the 182 school calendar days, instead of ending the school year on March 31, 2025.
“Let us prolong the school days. Let’s just add more school days so we do not touch the Saturdays. So, the school day will
remain the same. Standard,” the PCO quoted Marcos as saying.
After the 2024-2025 calendar schedule, school year 2025-2026 is expected to revert to the June-March schedule. The DepEd adjusted the start of classes in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Education Undersecretary and spokesperson Michael Poa said the President reached his decision after a meeting with Duterte, during which “they discussed our proposals and options for the school calendar.
“The option that was approved is basically the school year 2024-2025 that will end on April 15, 2025,” Poa told reporters at the sidelines of a DepEd event in Taguig City.
Poa said this means going back to the normal or original school cycle wherein classes open in June and end in March of next year.
“We are really going back to the normal or original June to March cycle of the school calendar,” he added.
Now that we are back to where we were before on the matter of education and school schedules, many Filipinos support Senate President Escudero’s observation that the government should be a little more decisive by not tweaking too often the school calendar.
We are happy to note that the Teachers Dignity Coalition is fine with the President and the Vice President’s decision on the school calendar. Another group of teachers we know—the noisy and boisterous Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) always has a contrary view or position on anything that the government say about schools, teachers, students and education in general. This left-leaning organization most often toe the line of the National Democratic Front (NDF), which we know is headed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). It’s just an observation, not necessarily red-tagging them, for they themselves know what tag they carry.
Undersecretary Poe assured that the DepEd will no longer hold Saturday classes.
“Since we will end school year 2024-2025 on April 15, we will meet the number of school days required. We no longer need to add more school days by holding Saturday classes,” he said, adding that Saturday classes would entail more work for teachers and learners.
“We want to prevent fatigue, certain things similar to it. The change will not have an adverse impact on the learning outcomes,” Poa said.
They make the school calendar. We follow.
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