Trips and slips in Catch-up Fridays

DepEd calendar (falling behind)

When I was informed about the changes in schedule for the school year 2024 to 2025, I became a little bit more optimistic for a change. I thought mostly about the bright side of this like getting to avoid scorching hot schooldays in the summer, and having only 3 months left until vacation; I never really thought about the harm it could do to me and my peers until we were hit by the storm of tasks that came in exchange of a shortened school year and a new calendar. 

On the other hand, it was stated by Inquirer that the overwhelming heat was not the only reason for implementing this short-sighted change, its other driving force is the Department of Education’s (DepEd) desire to align with our international peers’ schedules in order to hold academic exchanges easier. In addition, the Education Program Supervisor (EPS) in English of Biñan, Edmill Recibe, said that this is not much of a problem. However, in a student’s standpoint, this abrupt change in calendar is not benefiting us.

Because of the shortened school year, we students spent our night before supposed relaxation and reading for cramming and stressing over our tasks --- we don’t get to rest on weekends anymore. Although, we do understand that this is in attempts to easen out the educational gaps and catch up with our international competitors, but with how it was implemented, it only made us fall behind even more in education.

It is ironic how DepEd aims to decongest the current curriculum for both teachers and students yet still make all these hasty decisions without adequately adjusting the currently congested curriculum first. Frankly, it just made it more jam-packed than before, especially now that the schools are rushing to adapt with the new calendar. Why did they only thought of this when we’re already in the last two quarters of our school year? Do they even know how hectic the current curriculum’s standard is for us before even deciding on this? Now, we’re rushing on completing our researches and performance tasks just to comply to the department’s insensitive wishes.

Indeed, we can not deny the obvious learning gaps in the country, but there are other and better ways to address this than to ignorantly change the calendar without thinking of us students. DepEd is just adding more salt to the wounds of teachers and students. They shouldn’t rush education. Instead, they should focus on the existing problems in education and solve them rather than make us trip and slip over catching up with the world