CHED frowns on change in academic calendar

For the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), June is still the best time to start the school year.

The CHED, in a position paper issued Wednesday, said it "does not advise a change in the academic calendar" for colleges and universities in the Philippines.

The position paper, signed by CHED chairperson Patricia Licuanan, stated that improving the quality of education and the competencies of graduates "are much more fundamental than the issue of academic calendars."

"CHED stands firm in its belief that the best way to internationalize or engage with the global academic community is for higher education institutions to intensify their quality assurance, capacity-building and institutional development programs," the CHED said in its position paper.

The commission made this stand months after two of the biggest universities in the country—the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines—announced that they are shifting their academic calendars from June to March to August to May.

The University of Santo Tomas, meanwhile, has moved its college opening to July starting next school year.

Leeway

The CHED said that colleges and universities have "some leeway" under the law to establish their own calendars, provided that those under the commission will seek its approval.

"Higher education instutions can start their academic years at different times. What ought to be the common concern... is providing the requisite academic hours within an academic calendar year," it said.

The CHED, however, said that it "generally prescribes a June start” since it is "better harmonized with the schedule of classes of basic education."

The CHED also said that changing the class opening from June to August "would not make much of a difference" to mitigate the impact of climate change on the school calendar, since tropical cyclones tend to hit between July and September.

"Indeed, class suspensions due to heavy rains and typhoons tend to spike as well from July through October," the position paper read.

The commission further said that some families, particularly those from farming and fishing communities, may find it difficult to send students to school in August, since "agricultural cycles cause them to run out of financial resources" by this time of the year. — Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMA News