Right now the Philippines is one of the few countries that still goes with the June to March school calendar. There is now a proposal to move the Philippine school calendar to start in August until May.  This will start with the College level students. A few universities have already said that they will move their start of classes to August. 

Well, it looks like I'm going to have a long summer vacation this year because we finish school in March.  I have to start thinking of how to spend my vacation to stay busy.  I am thinking of initiating some fun eco-camps and other environmental activities to keep other kids busy too.

I read that the reason many schools are going with the new school calendar is so  they can be ready for the ASEAN economic integration in 2015.  ASEAN countries are composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

It is expected that when the ASEAN economic community is formed, this will be a where goods, services, investment, skilled labor and capital will flow freely between the countries. Another thing that will be affected will also be the free flow of education because the Philippines will become open to students from other ASEAN countries and the Philippine students might also want to go to other countries to study.  But with the change in school calendar we will all have synchronized school calendar. 

But one practical reason why the school calendar will be changed is because June and July is the start of the rainy season in the Philippines. If we move our start of school to August most students will be on vacation during the rainy season and they will not have to go through rainy days, flooding and school suspensions. 

But I was thinking climate change? When the weather becomes unpredictable we could still be going to school during the rainy season even if we change the start of school to August.  

So let's just be prepared and bring out the umbrellas and the boots!