Reinstate the Five-Day Class Week

by the UP Visayas Cebu College Student Council

In all its colleges, the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) is implementing a four-day class week. This scheme enjoins class schedules to run straight from Tuesdays through Fridays, imposing a strict man date not to have classes on Mondays.

Since the reduction of the number of schooldays from five days to four this semester, regular classes in UPV Cebu College start as early as 7:00AM and some end at 7:00PM.

Belt-tightening

Apparently, the purpose of the UP administration’s initiation of the four-day school week is to save money and cut expenditures short.

With Monday bearing the “strictly no class” mandate, they were certain that the costs for energy consumption, as well as the teachers’ pay, will be lessened—that is, if no make-up classes or other activities are made.

On a dialogue with the UP Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Diana Aure, she said that the rationale for the switching to this schedule is to provide a longer weekend (Saturday to Monday) for the students to be with their families, especially those residing outside the campus or city.

A cost-saving idea we can’t afford

The aforementioned reasons from the administration clearly show that their academic considerations for switching to a compressed school week are usually only an after-thought.

Hence, we question the quality of education affixed with the university’s austerity measures and cost cutting. The grim implications and upshots of this shortened class week are stated herein:

1. Students have less time to complete their next day’s home-work, since classes usually start early and end late.

2. The successive school-days, without any breather at all, only make the students tired, and not necessarily better learners.

3. Some students have three successive subjects, which only drains their cognitive energies.

4. Inconvenient schedules like 11:30AM to 1:00PM classes, which are timed during lunch breaks, also hound the students.

Thus, it only shows that the adoption of this new class week schedule, without prior notice to or due consultation from the students, is but a futile, ineffective and unproductive course of action taken by the administration for cost-saving purposes.

The shortened schedule seems to be exclusively implemented out of blind obedience to the present Arroyo government’s anti-people schemes and anti-student policies for education.

Uphold right to education

We stand firm in upholding our basic right to quality education. In particular, we mean the following:

1. The restoration of the five-day class week (Mondays-Thursdays, Tuesdays-Fridays schedule), with Wednesdays reserved for laboratory and PE classes as opposed to the new four-day class week with its Tuesdays-Thursdays, Wednesdays-Fridays schedule.

This, we believe, will also give students with no laboratory or PE classes on Wednesdays the time to catch up with lessons, assignments and other extracurricular activities that will greatly help in the holistic development of the students.

2. The cancellation of inconvenient class schedules like those held during lunch breaks.

3. The holding of democratic student consultations in the University’s crafting of policies that will indirectly or directly affect the students.

We do not want learning cut back to a minimum level and thus call for the reinstatement of the five-day class week, the intensification of the fight for higher state subsidy and winning of the struggle for a truly nationalist scientific and mass-oriented education in the long run.

We demand what is only just and what is only right – that we be given quality education. And this will not be possible if our class schedules are compressed, if our school-days are shortened.

Students Agenda for 2006 UPVCC Dean Selection

We, the Iskolars ng Bayan of the University of the Philippines Cebu College, unite in presenting this agenda to the nominees for the UPVCC Dean Selection:

• To unite with the UP students and community in opposing all budget cuts for the UP and education budget and in asserting for higher state subsidy;
• To prevent any tuition increase during his/her term;
• To push for the imposition of moratorium on laboratory increases;
• To help stop the collection of exorbitant fees, i.e. late registration fee, dropping fee, Leave of Absence fee, change matriculation fee, processing fee, and the like;
• To preserve and protect the academic mission and purpose of the University especially against the intrusion of the market;
• To uphold campus press freedom and ensure autonomy of publications over fiscal and editorial policies;
• To uphold the academic freedom of every member of the UP community;
• To protect students from political repression;
• To push for a nationalist UP education that is relevant to the Philippine society;
• To prioritize, recognize and protect the democratic rights and interests of UP constituents and the Filipino people;
• To ensure institutionalized democratic consultation as part of the administrative conduct of UP in creating and/or reviewing student policies;
• To review the effectiveness of and institute reforms in the Standardized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP);
• To reform current guidelines repressing students' right to organize;
• To monitor and lower rental fees rates collected for the use of college facilities;
• To address the opening of second gate near the undergraduate building;
• To ensure transparency and accountability to the constituents in all administrative activities;
• To institutionalize a sectorally-representative assembly similar to UP Manila's Pamantasang Asambleya;
• To uphold the continued existence of the UP High School;
• To facilitate the development of the Cultural Center and to ensure its accessibility for the UP Community's use;
• To prevent the privatization of the College¡¦s idle lands; and
• To prevent any planned demolitions of informal settlers in UP lands without relocation.
  

Proposed this 27th day of July, 2006 at the 1st UP Cebu Students Summit held at the Arts and Sciences Bldg Lobby, UP Cebu College.

Open Letter

First of all, I wish to congratulate the students of the UP Cebu community for surviving the recently concluded general elections and campaign for the 06-07 Student Council (SC). For sure, vestiges from the grueling campus electoral exercise remain. But in the face of an overwhelming multitude of definite challenges that we need to face, to linger on “very hard feelings” would be counter-productive and will only lead us to the dustbin of history.

Last February 1, we saw the execution of an increase in the Value-Added Tax from 10 to 12 percent. Moreover, there is the threat of another round of oil price hikes and a corresponding increase in the cost of goods and basic services while our parent’s salaries remain nailed to the floor.

Apart from worsening economic conditions, there are also political issues that remain unresolved. We have to cope with a president whose legitimacy and mandate the people continue to question, the debate regarding Charter Change, and the intensification of political killings and repression nationwide.

The problems besetting UP reflect this societal turmoil. Every year, we see the reduction of state subsidy. Likewise, the burden of shouldering the University’s operations is being passed on to the students through the intensification of commercialization as our facilities and services continue to deteriorate.

As we process our enrollment pre-registration, we will notice not a few changes. In line with a Malacañang directive, our school will be implementing a four-day school week and a five-day work week where all our subjects, including the PE and laboratory classes will be squeezed from Tuesday-to-Friday.

We are dismayed that we were not consulted when it is in fact us, the students, who will be directly affected by the undue pressures and fatigue that such an arrangement will bring. The long weekend can lead to the destruction of academic momentum while the 7am-to-7pm time-table may prove difficult for launching activities for the holistic development of the students.

Yet again we stand at the losing end from the government’s systematic misallocation of resources.

The SC, under my watch will be at the forefront of the struggle for the advancement of the student’s welfare. The experience of our fellow UPians in Baguio where this scheme was first implemented points out to the need for collective action and the assertion of our rights and interests.

We can follow the example set by the UP Baguio-University Student Council (UPB-USC) when they spearheaded a campaign to restore the original MTh-TF schedule. Their dedication and militancy brought back the six-day work week for certain student serices like the Library.

I am, however, no messiah. I cannot, like the traditional politicians of mainstream society, promise to make UP a better place. I cannot promise to have all anti-student and anti-people policies and measures prevented and have all the pro-student ones implemented.

The unification of our ranks, the unity of the students - these are the basic guarantees of the sure triumph of our cause. With such in mind, let us raise our determination to seek and carry out answers to the real issues that we will unavoidably be confronted with.

Let us move on as a whole - as a solid organization of individuals moving toward a common goal. Indeed, this is a challenge for everyone to meet. If we are to direct solutions to the short-term concerns we have at hand and continue the long-term fight for greater subsidy, we must succeed in this effort.

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson-Elect 06-07
Student Council