Dr. Prospero de Vera III, Commission on Higher Education chairperson. | CDN Digital file photo
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu – An official of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said that there was no need to revert to the old school calendar in order to avoid discomforts that may result from the El Niño phenomenon.
Dr. Prospero de Vera III, the CHED chairperson, said colleges and universities may instead consider alternatives like the adoption of flexible learning models.
“Rather than shift the calendar, what universities should do is exercise their powers under the flexible learning model. Like today, tumataas daw yung COVID, eh di mag-shift ka online. Kung medyo mainit eh di gawin mong asynchronous ‘yong subjects mo,” de Vera III said.
Still, he said that they would not stop colleges and universities that would prefer to revert to the old school calendar and allow classes to start in June.
They only needed to inform CHED of the changes that they wanted to implement, he added.
And while they do this, de Vera said, that colleges and universities should also consider how such a change would affect, especially their learners.
“Because the problem is, if you move your school calendar and the others won’t move, you are also penalizing the students, because hindi sila maka-transfer ng ibang eskwelahan, for example. O kung masyadong magkadikit yung graduation ng senior high at tsaka yung opening mo, hindi sila maka-apply kasi wala pa silang grade. You have to change the whole system all over again,” he added.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the opening of classes in the country was moved to September.
De Vera considers the new academic schedule as beneficial to the country’s education system because this was synchronized with the opening of classes in other countries.
“Kasi kung hindi sila naka-synchronize, you’ll have problems with students who want to study one semester abroad, you’ll have problems with faculties who want to teach, you’ll have problems with joint research,” he said.
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