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Changes are permanent thing on earth. Are the people is ready enough to accept the changes on the educational system? The current opening of classes here in the Philippines usually starts from June to March but our lawmakers want to amend the opening of classes. The existing school calendar which spans from June to March is often disrupted as destructive typhoons plague the region during the rainy season that’s why our lawmakers decided to move the opening of classes from September through May to avoid numerous class suspensions and serve to protect the students during strong typhoons. The Department of Education said that it is open to the proposal by some sectors, including lawmakers to move the opening of classes but they want to ensure the comfort of the students in school and stresses the need for a comprehensive study. While the Department of Education is open on the proposal, some did not welcome this idea. We will write a custom essay sample on Statistics and Probability or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page An initial survey on the matter conducted way back in 2009. On the respondents, 66 percent were against the move while 34 percent were in favor. [1] Also, another ground for rejecting the proposal is the traditions celebrated during summer and being not conducive in learning because of hot weather during March. The delay in suspension of classes is one of the reasons why our lawmakers and other sectors in the community urge to move the classes from June to September. Unexpected suspension of classes is hard on the part of students because they have to deal with floods, lack of transportations and diseases. Numerous class suspensions also cause irregularity of school days due to rains and floods, horrendous difficulties to and from school and danger to life from open drains and excavations. One of the thrusts of the Department of Education together with Commission on Higher Education and other sectors wants to avoid the delay of suspension and also to avoid, if not, minimize the number of class suspension. It is necessary to conduct this research to find out how to avoid or minimize the class suspensions. It is for reason that the researchers are interested in taking a more serious look about the opinions on the move to open the opening of classes from June to September. Background of the Study Changing of opening of classes from June to September is not new. In fact, decades ago, during the administration of Diosdado Macapagal, the same proposal was made for the same reason that the opening of classes should not fall during the rainy months. Alejandro Roces, Education Secretary of that time, 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 why it is back to the month of June now. Today, many of our lawmakers once again want to amend the opening of classes. Senator Manny Villar thru his Senate Bill No. 565 filed last 2009 on the thirteenth congress states that the school calendar from elementary, secondary, and tertiary level is hereby changed from June through March to September through May but failed to get the support of majority of lawmakers. Another known bill filed on the congress by Cagayan De Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez and Party list Representative Maximo Rodriguez Jr.  was the House Bill No. 1388 entitled as â€Å"School Calendar Act of 2010†. According to this bill, it states that it is intended to meet the urgent and reasonable need to protect the health, safety, and overall well-being of school children and student youth by adopting a school calendar most suited to Philippine climatic conditions. Also, according to this bill, the adoption of the trimester for tertiary levels is better for accelerated completion of courses and continuity of lessons within the post secondary and college curriculum. The bill also states the proposed school calendar for pre-elementary, elementary and secondary education that the first semester will start by September to mid-January plus Saturdays if needed to meet the 110 days required excluding official holidays. The second semester will start by mid-January to May plus Saturdays if needed to comply with the 110 days required and to make up for the days lost due to non-seasonal, climatic aberrations and the third semester will start from June to August covering the heaviest rainy months when the children and youth are safer at home. The proposed school calendar for post-secondary and tertiary level is also stated in the bill that the first semester will start from September to December in order to avoid the months of heaviest rain and greater number of typhoons. The second semester will start from January to April with provisions for the holidays and tradition graduation ceremonies and the third semester will start on May to August covering hot summer and heaviest rainy months. Students and youth may opt for distant study plan in view of climatic hazards. Cavite Representative Lani Mercado-Revilla also filed a bill in the congress seeking to move the classes from June to September thru House Bill No. 4895. According to the bill, it will help to minimize the danger to the students, teachers, and their parents and relatives who bring and fetch the students and teachers to school especially when classes are abruptly suspended or cancelled because of the rains and floods that threaten the safety of the individuals. It also stated in the bill that the Philippines and Brunei are the only countries in the Asia-Pacific region that open regular classes in June. Malaysia and Singapore open their classes in January, China in February, South Korea in March, Japan and India in April, Thailand in May, Indonesia in July and Hong Kong in September. It also stated that the current school calendar coincides with the start of the rainy season which usually starts in June. Party list Representative Bernadette Herrera-Dy also filed a bill to amend the opening of classes from June to September thru House Bill 4866. The bill seeks to change the start of the school year from June to September and to amend the Republic Act No. 7977 [sic] entitled as â€Å"An act to lengthen the school calendar from Two Hundred (200) days to not more than two hundred twenty (220) class days†. It is stated in the bill that the existing school year calendar begins from June through March of each year, falling within the rainy season. During this time, strong typhoon hits the country bringing in catastrophic floods, heavy traffic and highly communicable diseases. Senator Franklin Drilon’s bill filed last 2010; the Senate Bill No. 2407 also seeks to move the classes from June to September. The bill also wishes to amend the Section 24, Chapter 9, Title VI, and Book IV of Executive Order No. 292. The said amendment is that the school year for public and private schools shall consist of not less than forty (40) weeks for the elementary and secondary levels, and thirty-six (36) weeks for the college level or eighteen (18) weeks a semester. Senate Bill No. 2407 proposes the revision of the school calendar by transferring the commencement of the school year from June to September. According to him, if the opening of classes is moved, the country will avoid inconvenience and needless damage to life and property. Since the researchers’ studies at Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the researchers opted to look into the opinions of different sectors of College of Education about the moving of classes from June to September. The possibility of recommending measures to avoid, if not minimize the abruptly suspension of classes and irregularities every school year and to assure the safety of students, teachers, parents and school administrators is one of the reasons why this study was conducted. Theoretical Framework Education is a part of our life process. Starting at the age of four or earlier, almost of children are enrolled in different schools. When the month of June is near to come, parents and their children were looking forward for the coming busy days. As the school year started, many problems occur in reason of lack of facilities in schools, student’s willingness to go to school, and last but not the least, the weather condition during the month of June through December. In order to facilitate learning, the researchers studied some theories related to the opinions of teachers, students, parents and school administrators about moving the classes from June to September. According to Behaviorists theorists, forces in the environment shape behavior deliberately and the type of person and actions desired can be the product of design. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead to satisfying aftereffects. If the students are not affected by the cancellation of classes due to bad weather, learning is enhanced because they have much time in studying. Behavioral theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction influences behavior and are based upon the theories of John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov and B. F. Skinner. This theory differs considerably from other child development theories because it focuses purely on how experience shapes who we are. Also, Cognitive-Gestalt approaches developed the concept that individuals have different needs and concerns at different times, and that they have subjective interpretations in different contexts. Many teachers believe that exposure to various situations can help students develop their abilities if placed in appropriate situations and exposed to varied experiences. If the proposal to move the opening of classes from June to September, the students and even teachers will be able to have new experiences and they will know how far their limits is. In addition, Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experience. In this connection, the impacts of climate change on the study habits of the students have caught the attention of the concerned sectors of the government in every country. Naturally, drought and natural disasters reduce the opportunities of the students to acquire knowledge from the schools. In response to this climate problem, our lawmakers are proposing that the opening of the school classes will be moved from June through March to September through May. Conceptual Framework Education today is not just what we think. Now that the K-12 Program is implemented that changes our education system, our government also now studies the moving of opening of classes from June to September that is suitable to the climate in the Philippines to make learning process more effective. In order to understand better the interactive concept of moving the class opening from June to September, the researchers have designed a paradigm that may portray the interaction: Figure 1 The Paradigm of the Study The research paradigm in Figure 1 shows the Input, Process, and the Output to be studied in this investigation. In the Input, the researchers want to know the opinions of the selected school administrators, faculty of College of Education, parents, and students. In the process, the researchers’ needs to gather the opinions of different sectors of the College of Education in Information Technology in order to formulate a recommendation if it is necessary to move the opening of classes from June to September stated in the output. Statement of the Problem This study is undertaken to find out the opinions of different sectors of College of Education in Information Technology on the move to open classes from June to September. Specifically, this study seeks answers to the following research sub-problems. 1. Are you in favor in moving classes to September ? Significance of the Study The main objective of this study is to know the opinions, perceptions, and point of view of the selected students, faculty members under College of Education, administrators of Polytechnic University of the Philippines and also the parents. The study’s goal is designed to help the teachers, student, school administrators and also parents to know if moving of classes is advisable in our country. In this study, the researchers’ goal is to recognize the opinion of different sectors in our society as the researchers mentioned before. The researchers intended also to comprehend if moving of classes is effective not only in the three regions mentioned by PAGASA but also as an implemented law in our country. Moreover, this study addressed itself to: educators specifically teachers and school administrators which they may gain valuable insights on the effectively moving of classes from June to September and judge on the applicability of moving of classes from June to September based on the researchers’ findings and conclusions. It is also helped the parents and students to recognize that moving of classes from June to September certainly understand that this kind of changes is applicable in our country and ready to adapt it. The study also help the local government units in the aspect of suspension of classes, and that is, to know if moving of opening of classes will avoid, if not, minimize the suspension of classes and the unexpected suspension of classes. The study, likewise attempted to identify potential reason of those respondents why they desire or not about the issue of moving of classes from June to September and recommend some ways on how it becomes effectively. Scope and Limitations This research attempted to find out the respondent’s opinions about moving of the opening of classes from June to September. The respondents were selected from the department of the College of Education in Information Technology in Universal College of Paranaque ,Paranaque City during the 2nd Semester. This study was limited only to know the opinions of the department of the College of Education in Information Technology community based on the survey questionnaire administered to all selected respondents covered in the study. Definition of Terms For further understanding of this study, the following terms were defined operationally: Academic Year: The period of time each year when the schools in the Philippines opens usually from June to March. CHED: Commission on Higher Education is the governing body in both private and public higher education institutions as well as degree-granting programs in all tertiary educational institution in the Philippines. CHED is responsible in the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs for the development and efficient operation of the higher education system in the country. Class Opening: a formal commencement or official start of classes. Class Suspension: a conditional cancellation of classes to prevent inconvenience of students, teachers, and parents most especially due to inclement weather. DepEd: Department of Education is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the management and governing of the Philippine system of basic education and as well as having the authority in deciding on class opening and class suspension in public elementary and high school. Senate Bill 2407: Proposal of Senator Franklin Drilon. It proposes to move the opening of classes from June to September. Move: to propose; to recommend; specifically to propose formally for consideration and determination in deliberative assembly; to submit, as a resolution to be adopted. Opinion: personal view or judgment formed about something not necessarily on facts or knowledge. It is a subjective belief of a large or majority of people about a particular thing. PAGASA: Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration is a Philippine national institution dedicated to provide flood and typhoon warnings, public weather forecasts and advisories, meteorological, astronomical, climatologically, and other specialized information and services primarily for the protection of life and property and in support of economic, productivity and sustainable development. Propose: To put forward for consideration, discussion, or adoption; suggest; propose a change in the law. Weather: the state of the air or atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness, or any other meteorological phenomena. Chapter 2 Review of Related Studies and Literature This chapter includes reviewed newspapers, articles, and other publications related to the present study for the readers to have a full grasp and understanding of the issues raise in the study. Related literature and studies were also considered so as to relate and justify the significance of the present research activity. Foreign Literature According to Mark Hughes, somewhere in the world, right now, students are hard at work in school. With over 190 nations spanning the globe’s 24 time zones, students and their academic years come in variety of forms. Students in Australia attend school for 200 days a year, and school year last from late January to mid December. Since Australia is in the southern hemisphere, it experiences summer while it’s winter in the northern hemisphere. Summer vacation for Australian students is from mid December to late January. Their school year is divided into four terms, with each term lasting 9 to 11 weeks. Students then have two weeks of vacation between each term. The typical school day is from 9 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. , and lunch is eaten at school. Students are required to attend school for at least eleven years, but they usually attend for twelve years. Brazil, also found in the southern hemisphere, shares the same summer months as Australia. The School day in Brazil runs from 7 a. m. to noon. Because China is in the northern hemisphere, its summer months are in line with Europe, and North America. The school year in China typically runs from the beginning of September to mid-July. Summer vacation is generally spent in summer classes or studying for entrance exams. Costa Rica was one of the first nations in Central and South America to offer free public education. The School year in Costa Rica runs from February to December. In France, the school year stretches from August to June, and is divided into four seven-week terms, with one to two weeks of vacation in between. Iran is another nation with a school year similar to European countries. Students in Iran go to schools for 10 months a year, or about 200 active days, from September to June. Most Japanese schools run on a trimester schedule. The academic year begins in April and ends the following March, with breaks for summer, winter and spring separating the three terms. In Kenya, the school year divided into three terms, each 13 weeks long, with one-month breaks in between. The school year in Mexico runs from September to June, while in Nigeria runs from January to December. The year is divided into three semesters with a month off in between each semester. In Russia, the school year runs from the first of September to late May, but in South Korea, the school year typically runs from March to February. In different countries, the opening of classes varies on the climate and weather condition. According to Mark Hughes, somewhere in the world, right now, students are hard at work in school. With over 190 nations spanning the globe’s 24 time zones, students and their academic years come in variety of forms. Students in Australia attend school for 200 days a year, and their school year last from late January to mid December. Since Australia is in the southern hemisphere, it experiences summer while it’s winter in the northern hemisphere. Summer vacation for Australian students is from mid December to late January. Their school year is divided into four terms, with each term lasting to 9 to 11 weeks. Students then have two weeks of vacation between each term. The typical school day is from 9 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. Students are required to attend school for twelve years. Brazil that is also found in the southern hemisphere is running school from 7 a. m. to noon. Because China is in the northern hemisphere, its summer months are in line with Europe, and North America. The school year in China typically runs from the beginning of September to mid-July. Summer vacation is generally spent in summer classes or studying for entrance exams. Costa Rica was one of the first nations in Central and South America to offer free public education. The School year in Costa Rica runs from February to December. Education is increasingly accepted as an integral part of humanitarian response in emergencies. It can help restore normalcy, safeguard the most vulnerable, provide psychosocial care, promote tolerance, unify divided communities and begin the process of reconstruction and peace building. Research also suggests education can entrench intolerance, create or perpetuate inequality and intensify social tensions that can lead to civil conflict and violence. Education is a key determinant of income, influence and power. Inequalities in educational access can lead to other inequalities – in income, employment, nutrition and health as well as political position, which can be an important source of conflict. Education plays a vital role in humanitarian and nation building that’s why educational institutions and experts devoted themselves in researching new strategies in Education that is beneficial to student’s learning process. Moving of classes from June to September is one of the researches that the experts conducts to know if the said proposal will not only make the opening of classes smoothly but also aid the student’s educational learning process. Local Literature Former Education Secretary Mona Valisno said that government should test run the long proposed opening of classes in September instead of June, saying the early months of the rainy season have proven to be more dangerous for students. According to former Secretary Mona Valisno, there should be a test run of the proposed moving of classes to know the adverse effects of this proposal. She further states that opening of classes on the early months of the rainy season is proven to be more dangerous for students. However, Party-list Rep. Antonio 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. According to Rep. Antonio Tinio, some parts of the country are only affected by the typhoons and there is no need to involve the whole nation in moving of classes from June to September. Further study should be done to know the different climate patterns in the Philippines. Today, Senator Franklin Drilon renewed his call for moving the opening of classes from June to September to prevent class disruptions due to rainy season. In a statement, Drilon also urged his colleagues in the Senate to study Senate Bill No. 2407 that he filed last 2010 which proposes the changing of the country’s school calendar. According to him, the new school year has just begun, yet we already experienced a cancellation of classes due to bad weather condition, which, based on the past experiences, takes effect starting June-also the month that marks a fresh school year. According to Angelo Gutierrez, in his article, Cavite Representative Lani Mercado-Revilla has revived calls to move country’s school calendar to avoid the rainy season. Mercado-Revilla filed House Bill 4895, which proposes to move the opening of classes from June to September. She also said that the Philippines and Brunei are the only countries in the Asia-Pacific region that open their regular classes in June. She also cited that Malaysia and Singapore open their classes in January, China in February, South Korea in March, Japan and India in April, Thailand in May, Indonesia in July and Hong Kong in September. During the rainy season, classes are usually suspended as storm pass by the country. Several schools, particularly in areas prone to storms, have to extend the suspension of classes because their classrooms have to be utilized as temporary shelters for residents displaced by storms. She also claimed that the changing of the school calendar to September will also help lessen the dangers posed to the health of the students, teachers, and their guardians like respiratory diseases, dengue fever and leptospirosis, and ensure their safety which can be endangered by various street repairs which result in excavations and open drains. Foreign Studies According to the research study conducted by Giorgio Di Pietro, most UK universities were running the undergraduate study program in accordance with a two-semester mode. A survey on credit practice carried out by Johnston and Walsh. Survey shows that percentage of institutions reporting to adopt a two-semester delivery system was 56%. This system was perceived to provide several advantages mainly because of its flexibility. The greatest advantage of the two-semester academic calendar is that it has the potential to increase enrollment given that universities have the possibility to recruit students twice a year, i. e. at the beginning of each semester. Although the start-date flexibility imposes additional costs because of a higher organizational burden, it may play an important role in attracting international students, mature students and those from poor backgrounds who may have missed the chance of enrolling over the summer because they were not clear what to do. In his study, it is stated that changes in academic calendar may not totally affect the school performance of the students. Some of the sectors in our society claimed that moving of opening of classes from June to September is not really a solution. According to Nick Grinstead, school calendar reform disappeared as a solution to Public Education system reform from the 1970s until the early 1980s. During this period, the idea developed that an alternative school calendar could be used to solve school or district logistical issues arising from overcrowding and unsustainable enrollment. Consequently, rather than alternative school calendars being implemented in schools for mainly logistical reasons and geographically being implemented in the western United States as they were throughout the 1970s and through most of the 1980s, alternative school calendars since 1983, and especially since 1994, have been implemented throughout the United Stated and have been implemented with the philosophical intention of improving academic outcomes. Furthermore, studies of the effectiveness. The 1970s’ results are hard to place in today’s post-Nation at Risk context. Further, a significant number of studies were done within a year of implementation of an alternative calendar. Related to this, these studies, obviously, have an ideological bent as they were commissioned by schools and school districts with an express outcome desired by those doing the commissioning of the studies. When the school calendar reformers use the term â€Å"Traditional Calendar,† they can be specifically referring to the school calendar that America uses currently or, more broadly, a school calendar that has federally standardized elements to it. Used specifically (the former), the Traditional Calendar refers to the 170 – 180 day, nine-month calendar that typically runs from September to June and is divided into two time periods (from September to January and from mid-January to June) with a two-week â€Å"holiday† break around Christmas and Hanukkah, a one-week â€Å"Spring Break† around the end of March or in April, and a twelve-plus week break in the summer. However, the â€Å"Traditional Calendar† has not always been a tradition. In other hand, the year-round calendar and any school adhering to the possesses many nomenclatural faces: Year-round calendars have been referred to as four quarter plans, continuous all year plans, four vacation plans, alternative calendar plans, mountain calendar plans, personalized calendar plans, community calendars, custom calendars, balanced calendars and the aforementioned modified school calendars. In terms of academic achievement and implementation of an alternative school calendar is supposed to address one specific thing: something the literature calls â€Å"Summer Learning Loss†. According to an oft-cited â€Å"meta-analysis†, or quantitative review, of all then-previous research concerning Summer Learning Loss, Harris Cooper and his colleagues estimated that the typical child loses a bit more than one month’s amount of skill or knowledge in Math, Language Arts, and Reading combined during a typical, â€Å"traditional† summer break. According to the research conducted by Nick Grinsted, He cited the study of Harris Cooper and his colleagues the effects of having classes during summer. They stated that student having classes during summer may experience Summer Learning Loss that causes them to lose a skill or knowledge in specific subjects like Math, Language and Arts and Reading during summer. If the proposed moving of opening of classes from June to September because it will coincide summer days, the students here in the Philippines may also experience Summer Learning Loss. According to the study of Uduak Imo, Ph. D. , and Imo Jackson, Ph. D.b  , climate change is one of the most important environmental issues facing the world today. Its phenomenon has serious deleterious consequences for the earth in the form of significant variations in regional climates, recurrent droughts, excessive heat waves, windstorms, killer floods, and so on. Additional impacts include threat to health as rising temperature could bring about diseases such as chronic heat rashes, Cerebra-Spinal Meningitis (CSM), stroke, malaria and other related diseases. According also to their study, climate change awareness involves creating knowledge, understanding and values, attitude, skills and abilities among individuals and social groups towards the issues of climate change for attaining a better quality environment. Climate change has impact on the school calendar. Because the climate pattern is changing, the government officials should thoroughly study the moving of classes from June to September especially the climate patterns if it is indeed necessary to change the opening of classes. Local Studies Better education will be provided if DepEd moves the opening of classes to September since there will be less cancellations of classes due to typhoons. This will lengthen the number of school days which will provide more education for the students. Aside from avoiding the strong typhoons that struck during the months of June, moving of opening of classes will benefit students by having long days in school so that the courses and lessons will be mastered by the students and it will be finished ahead of time. There will be also less suspension of classes and unexpected suspension due to bad weather. The advantages of moving the opening of classes from June to September are: better education since there will be less cancellations of classes due to typhoons, there will be no unplanned/unexpected cancellations of classes, students don’t need to walk through floods since it will be vacation when there will be many typhoons, and students have lesser chance in getting diseases like leptospirosis, coughs, colds, fever and etc. Moving of the opening of classes has its advantages that the students will benefit from. These advantages will help students in terms of studying and learning the lessons effectively and productively. Also, this will protect them in having illness and floods. Disadvantages of moving the opening of classes from June to September are: the proposed schedule will hit the hottest months of the year making it uncomfortable for students, students will have a high chance of getting heat stroke and other diseases related to summer due to extremely high temperature, DepEd has to spend more for the ventilation of classrooms in public schools and the proposed schedule will hit long holidays such as holy week which will also disrupt classes. According also to the study, disadvantages will also arise in moving the opening of classes from June to September. One of that is the classes will coincide summer that makes students uncomfortable due to hot weather. Students cannot concentrate on the subject matter because they feel uncomfortable of hot temperature. It also shows that there will be also a disrupt in classes due to