Read the article below.

After reading it, you need to do the following:

1. Think about your own opinion on this prompt: Reverting opening of classes to June – is it a
good or a bad idea?

2. Find the best textual evidence from the article to prove your assertion or counterclaim; and
3. Write an opinion paragraph on the issue by stating your assertion/counterclaim, citing the
textual evidence to prove your claim and explaining how these evidences support your opinion.

EDITORIAL

The case for a June school

opening
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:18 AM April 16, 2024

In February, the government announced the return of the old school calendar where classes start
in June instead of the third or fourth quarter, as has been the case since the pandemic.
But the Department of Education (DepEd) insists on doing it gradually, which means a June
opening won’t happen so soon. Under the original plan, the transition will take place over a five-
year period before settling into a June-to-March schedule. Later, in response to calls from
education stakeholders, DepEd agreed to reduce the wait to two years.
The rationale is sound—so that students’ learning progress would not be impeded.

In February, the government announced the return of the old school calendar where classes start
in June instead of the third or fourth quarter, as has been the case since the pandemic.
But the Department of Education (DepEd) insists on doing it gradually, which means a June
opening won’t happen so soon. Under the original plan, the transition will take place over a five-
year period before settling into a June-to-March schedule. Later, in response to calls from
education stakeholders, DepEd agreed to reduce the wait to two years.
The rationale is sound—so that students’ learning progress would not be impeded.
But one variable has sparked yet another clamor to execute the new policy as early as next
school year: extreme heat due to a strong El Niño and the prevailing dry season that is making
classrooms a hellish place for students and teachers alike.

Caught off-guard
Last week, President Marcos vowed to complete the transition sooner than planned amid soaring
heat indexes. In the meantime, classes in many areas are suspended while a number of schools
have shifted to remote learning.
The President admitted that the government had been caught off-guard by higher-than-normal
temperatures this early in the dry season: “We did not expect that it would be like this; usually by
now, temperatures would be starting to rise but we have been having this intense heat early on.”

Thus, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and Teachers’ Dignity Coalition requested an
immediate return to the old calendar, as public schools are ill-equipped to hold lessons under
such oppressive conditions.

Alternative delivery modes

DepEd, however, has rejected the call. “To reduce the timeline any further would have
significant impacts not only on learning outcomes but also on the well-being of learners and
teachers due to the lack of sufficient breaks,” Education Undersecretary Michael Poa said.

He noted that schools were empowered to switch to alternative delivery modes (ADMs) during
disasters, including weather disturbances. Among ADMs offered by DepEd are homeschooling;
instructional management by parents, community and teachers; and modified in-school, off-
school approach. Some of these modes allow online learning, depending on the resources
available to schools.
Of 47,678 public schools, 5,844 have switched to ADMs, which, according to Poa, proves “not
all schools are similarly situated.”
“Hence, giving school heads … the discretion to switch to ADMs provides a more immediate
and effective response to heat conditions rather than knee-jerk changes that would further
compromise learning recovery,” he said.

Hot and stuffy classroom

It’s understandable that DepEd is sticking to its guns, as the agency remains under tremendous
pressure to improve the poor performance of Filipino students in international scholastic
assessments, which worsened during the pandemic

But in keeping its eye on the ball, DepEd might have forgotten about the players—the students
and teachers.
An ACT online survey of 11,706 public school teachers showed that two-thirds of them found
the heat in classrooms to be unbearable. Ninety-seven percent of respondents use electric fans
while only one percent have air conditioners. The rest rely on natural ventilation.
As anyone who has ever gone to school knows, a hot and stuffy classroom is a poor environment
for learning. By failing to address this, DepEd courts the opposite of its desired results. And by
leaving it to school heads to decide when to tap distance learning modes, it shirks its
responsibility to protect the welfare of learners and teachers.
There are various methods, albeit costly and ambitious, to solve this conundrum. One is boosting
the climate resiliency of educational infrastructures, and the other is a flexible and permanent
hybrid setup.

Digital transformation
For a start, there must be enough classrooms, desks, and chairs to prevent overcrowding in
schools. Campuses must be flood-resistant and weatherproof, and all classrooms properly
ventilated. Lastly, poor schools, teachers, and learners must receive ample support for distance
learning.
One way forward is Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s proposal to accelerate the education sector’s
“digital transformation” in Senate Bill No. 383. In this, the government may partner with
telecom companies for the technological requirements, such as Wi-Fi-enabled laptops and free
internet connection.
It must be stressed that a June school opening won’t fix all the problems that climate change
brings. All it would do is facilitate the return of summer vacations. As June approaches, the
source of torment will abruptly switch from heat to rain.
Or perhaps not.

The reality of climate change is that storms, floods, droughts, and heat waves will keep
disrupting our lives in ways that are harder and harder to predict. Therefore, it is vital that
schools adapt quickly so that students can learn well in any setting or situation—on or off
campus, in hot or wet weather.

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/172978/the-case-for-a-juneschool-

opening#ixzz8YGoVosqb