TACLOBAN CITY- Students from the University of the Philippines- Visayas Tacloban College (UPVTC) expressed their opposition on the new academic calendar system that is now being implemented at the said state university. The new system would not be beneficial to them but instead would “isolate” them from the rest of other universities and colleges in the country, Shawn Capucion, student council chairperson, said. “The (UP) system is not prepared. It is isolating UP from the entire Philippines,” Shawn Capucion, a fourth year college student taking Bachelor Science major in Political Science, said. At present, there are about 1,238 enrolled at the UPVTC.
The UP system, together with the Ateneo de Manila University and University of Santo Tomas, has adopted the new school calendar starting this year wherein classes starts on the month of August and end on May. Majority of the schools in the country still follow the old calendar system with classes starting on June and end on April or May. The new calendar system is part of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian) integration and on the ground that the month of June, the regular start of classes in the country, starts the onset of the rainy season.
Capucion said that the new system places them at the disadvantage considering that board examinations are conducted on months during which they still have classes.
He also said that by finding jobs would also now be difficult as graduates from other schools would find employment ahead of them.
This view of Capucion was also shared by other students of the said state university.
“I am also against with the new system. Our semester break happen to fall during the Christmas break and while our friends from other schools are on vacation already, we are still in school,” a student, a fourth year management student who requested not to be named, said. (JOHANNES PAULUS CASIS,LNU Intern)
