The Marcos administration’s approval of a trimester school calendar has been met with sharp criticism from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT). Their objections deserve more than passing attention, for they expose a deeper malaise in the way education policy is conceived and imposed in the Philippines.
At first glance, the shift to a three-term calendar may appear as a technical adjustment, a matter of scheduling meant to streamline academic delivery. But as ACT rightly points out, the roots of the education crisis lie not in the calendar but in the chronic shortages of classrooms, teachers, and learning materials, compounded by low wages and crushing workloads. To repackage the school year without addressing these structural deficiencies is to mistake form for substance.
What is most troubling is the pattern of governance this decision reflects. The administration had earlier acknowledged the need for consultation, yet proceeded with a rushed rollout that sidelines the voices of rank-and-file educators. This top-down approach, repeated across past reforms such as K to 12, has left teachers scrambling to patch gaps in policy design while absorbing the blame for inevitable failures.
Education reform cannot be reduced to technocratic tinkering. It requires genuine dialogue with those who live the realities of the classroom, and a commitment to invest in the fundamentals: livable salaries, adequate facilities, and a curriculum responsive to the needs of learners. Without these, any calendar, whether divided into two terms, three, or more, will remain a hollow gesture.
The Department of Education must pause the implementation of the trimester system and return to the table with teachers’ unions, parents, and students. Reform must begin with listening, not dictating. To persist in cosmetic changes while neglecting structural inequities is to condemn another generation to substandard education.
The lesson is clear: calendars do not teach children. Teachers do. And until their voices are heard and their conditions improve, the promise of meaningful reform will remain unfulfilled. #
