Good morning.

I am here today to defend the proposition: this house

supports the adjustment of the academic calendar of the Philippines top
universities. Now, before I proceed to my speech, I would like to ask you a simple
question. In adjusting the academic calendar of the Philippines top universities,
will we loose anything? No answer? None? Well I guess that itself shows that
there is only very minimal to possibly no loss if the top universities change their
academic calendar. Changing the academic calendar would only lessen the
chances of the suspension of classes due to the fact that the rainiest months are
usually June, July and August.
The Philippines receives an average of 20-25 typhoons annually. Most of
these typhoons occur during the said months. By adjusting the academic
calendar of the universities, less time and effort are wasted. Chances of being
stranded in schools are also avoided. Moreover, the risk of being sick due to the
weather is prevented. Therefore, starting classes on August, and avoiding the
rainy season, will provide more convenience and safety for everyone.
Adjusting the academic calendar would also attract more foreign students
to study in the Philippines as well as enable Filipino students to easily enroll and
apply to schools outside of the Philippines. This will not only bring academic
growth to our country but economic growth as well. By adjusting the academic
calendar of the universities, the Philippines would be ready for the economic
integration plans of the ASEAN Economic Community or the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community. They plan to align all the
academic calendars of the nations part of the association to the academic
calendar used by the rest of the world by 2015. Out of all the countries that are
part of the ASEAN, the Philippines is the only country that does not start their
academic calendar in August. By altering the academic calendar, Philippine
education will be forced to improve. Additionally, collaborations with schools
abroad for programs like Junior Term Abroad or more commonly known as JTA
and other foreign exchange programs would be much easier to organize. These
opportunities would not only help students enhance their capabilities but will also
result to a wider and more globalized education here in our country.
Another point would be that adjusting the academic calendar would make
the months more evenly distributed around the breaks. In our countrys academic
calendar at the moment, we start our school year at June and end at March. This
would give us a very unorganized and inefficient flow of the semesters. It would
give us the pattern of: 5 months for the first semester, a 4-day break, a month
and a half for the first half of the second semester, a 2-week break, and then
lastly 3 months for the latter part of the second semester. The placement of the
breaks in this pattern is very irrational as: 1) it cuts the second semester into half,
and 2) a 4-day break would only disrupt the studying-mindset of the students

and honestly, a 4-day break is simply not enough time for the students to rest. It
would be much more practical and efficient if the academic calendar would start
in August and end at May. Here, the semestral break and the Christmas break
are combined giving the students a longer rest and a better placement of the
breaks. As a result, the pattern would then be 5 months for the first semester, a
2-week break and then 6 months for the second semester. Having combined the
semestral break and the Christmas break, the academic calendar pattern is not
anymore as inefficient, time consuming and confusing as the previous pattern.
Change is needed in order to progress. Education is also needed in
order to progress. By simply reforming the academic calendar, our educational
system can start progressing and eventually, our countrys educational system
could be at par with those aboard. As George Bernard Shaw said: The
reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in
trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man.