Class opening in September sensible

With the recent spate of class suspensions due to typhoons and heavy rains, our Department of Education officials should seriously consider moving the opening of classes from June to September. As global warming and climate change continue to worsen, we can expect much stronger typhoons and monsoon rains to hit our country during this time of the year, meaning, more classes will be called off.

Aside from this, we are currently the only country in Asia that is left with only 10 years of basic education, and because of the numerous cancellation of classes, the number of classroom time spent by our students has been further reduced. (Classroom time is very important since this is where the student can learn from his or her teacher, which will help his or her learning progression.) This is most likely one major reason why our students continue to lag behind students of our neighboring countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, in terms of performance.

I hope our education officials can consider taking this major step to ensure that our students will spend more days in school.

—HARVEY S. KEH,

executive director,

Asia Society Philippines Foundation,

Email: [email protected]