The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) is again asking the Department of Education (DOE) to return to the old school calendar, where school break falls in the hottest months of the year: April and May. This is after the education department recently announced that the first day of School Year 2023-2024 will begin on August 28.
According to Benjo Basas, the Chairperson of TDC, there are good reasons for this push. First off, this is to avoid the hot weather condition that the students and teachers would experience during their school years that will lead to many falling ill.
It will also prevent the situations where many schools are compelled to switch back to online and modular learning due to the extreme heat.
This also applies to classes that could be cut short due to the same reason, especially in “crowded, poorly ventilated, and inadequately insulated” classrooms.
The organization proposed that the start of the next school year will remain on August 28 or August 29, 2023, but will end on April 27, 2024. Ergo, this schedule will have 33 Saturdays of asynchronous classes, making the total number of school days 193, more than the required 180 days set by the DepEd.
However, Basas noted that this schedule will only allow a 44-day school break instead of the regular 60. To offset this, the group asked the education department to consider 16 days short for a two-month summer vacation as leave credit, paid vacation, or sick leave.
“With this scheme, we could revert to the old schedule by school year 2024-25 with very minimal adjustment and without sacrificing the mandatory two-month school break for teachers. And by school year 2025-2026, we will be fully reverted to the country’s traditional June-March school schedule, which has served our nation well for years,” concluded Basas.
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