CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND IT’S BACKGROUND
Introduction
The government might have realized that necessary steps must be taken in order to improve the education system in the country, leading them to make and consider some changes to keep up with the other countries.
First, there was that bold move of implementing the K to 12 program where basic education will last for 12 years instead of the traditional 10 years. And maybe also because of climate change, just recently, there were reports about Malacañang being open to studying proposals to change the school calendar. However, the Congress still has the final say on the matter.
This means that the academic calendar would run from August to May or September to June instead of June to March. This was intended to avoid the suspension of class because of typhoons just like last year, about 25 typhoons, including the Nov. 9 super typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines and also to copy the academic calendar of most countries in order to attract foreign students to study in the Philippines and assist the enrollment abroad of Filipino students and teachers. This will also allow Philippines a greater synchronization with the ASEAN, Northeast Asian and American and European universities since a lot of training programs and activities of summer institutes happen in June and July in which, in the proposed academic calendar, these months don’t have classes.
At present, five universities named University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, University of Sto. Tomas and Adamson University have already expressed their plans to adapt the proposed academic calendar.
Looking at these, it can be seen how the education system in the country is intended to be patterned after the education system of other countries. But some of people disagree with this proposal because of some reasons like the facilities of the schools are not appropriate for these changes and a lot of adjustment is needed to be done by the students and other Filipino people affected.

Statement of the Problem
The researcher attempted to study about the reaction of the people that are going to be affected by the implementation of the new school calendar in the Universities in the Philippines. This study is especially measured to answer the following questions:
1. Are the students of New Era University aware of the implementation of the new school calendar in the Philippines?
2. What will be the opinion of the respondents in New Era University about the movement of the opening of classes to August next year?
3. How will the respondents be affected with the implementation?
4. What are the suggestions of the respondents to the lawmakers in pushing the implementation?
5. What will be the benefits of moving the school opening to August?

Significance of the Study This study aims to know the progress of the proposal about the implementation of new school calendar in the Philippines. The researchers also aim to inform the government about the reaction of the Filipinos that are affected by these changes. Scope and Limitation The scope and limitation of this study are the students from first year to fourth year of business administration in New Era University. The researcher is going to give survey questionnaire to the respondents to gather enough information to have an accurate research regarding the said problem.

Definition of Terms Terms here are conceptually and operationally defined for better understanding of the readers. The ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that is a political and economic organization of ten countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The government is a group of people that governs a community or unit. It sets and administers public policy and exercises executive, political and sovereign power through customs, institutions, and laws within a state. The implementation is the carrying out and execution of a plan. Implementation is the action that must follow any preliminary thinking in order for something to actually happen. The policy is a plan or course of action, as of a government, political party, or business, intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE This chapter presents survey of related literature and writing of recognized experts, both of which have significant bearing or relation to the problem under investigation. From GMA news, last January 2014, Severino stated the following in his article: Adamson University will begin the next school year this August, with other Philippine colleges and universities expected to follow suit in moving their academic calendar by 2015, in order to align them with foreign counterparts. Faculty and students of the University of Santo Tomas also told GMA News that UST's next school year will begin this July as part of a gradual shift to a later start of the calendar year, but this change has not been confirmed by UST's administration. Most universities in the world begin the school year in August, September, or October, while the Philippines has stuck to its June-March calendar. From ABS-CBN news, last February 2014, Lacuata stated the following in her article: Some lawmakers are opposing the change in schools' calendar, after some universities in Metro Manila announced that they will move the opening of classes from June to August. Classes in the University of the Philippines, except for its Diliman campus, will start on August this year, while Ateneo de Manila University will implement the shift in its academic calendar in 2015. The University of Santo Tomas has also announced that it will move the opening of classes from June to July. From InterAksyon news, last October 2013, Aquino stated the following in her article: As the Philippines moves to synchronize its academic calendar with ASEAN and the international community, the country's top universities have begun considering how to manage the transition. One emerging inevitability: a one-time five- to six-month vacation for students that could come as early as next year, or on 2015. As the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila prepare for synchronization with ASEAN, school calendars will, either this academic year or next, likely shift to September to May or June, and August to May, respectively, school officials say. With current calendars ending March, the universities may pilot transition schedules that will at one point or another be adopted by all other schools. While discussions to change the academic calendar have been going on for the past ten years or so, according to UP Vice President for Public Affairs Prospero de Vera III, reaching a final decision is urgent because of the planned integration of the region's nations into an "ASEAN Community", starting in 2015. From Inquirer news, last February 2014, Sabilio stated the following in her article: Wearing their “sablay,” the university’s official academic costume, more than 10 professors held a press conference at Vinzons Hall in UP Diliman, Quezon City, to oppose plans to move UP’s academic calendar from June-March to August-May. “The nature of opposition is both procedural and political,” the group said in a statement. They said the faculty referendum, which started Monday, should not have pushed through since the matter has already been decided on by the UP Diliman University Council. Diliman is the only UP campus that had decided to follow the old schedule. From Solar news channel, last February 2014, Rufino stated the following in his article: The administration of the University of the Philippines in Diliman says it is high time to shift the academic year -- from June-to-March to August-to-May. In a forum held Monday, UP System President Doctor Alfredo Pascual said the shift is needed to synchronize the state university with international standards. Pascual adds that the move would be in time for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations integration in 2015, as he notes that the Philippines is the only country left in the ASEAN region with an academic year that starts in June. Last week, the UP System Board of Regents approved the pilot testing of an academic calendar shift in several of its campuses, except for Diliman as consultations with stakeholders there have yet to be completed. Jules Guiang, Vice Chairman of the UP Diliman Student Council, hinted at the seeming lack of genuine massive consultation and what many suspect to be a pattern of railroading: "Its really sad ... How many students should be in a consultation, right?" From Philippine Daily Inquirer, last February 2014, Pazzibugan stated the following in her article: Starting classes in August instead of June may be within the law, but the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) expressed “concern” should other universities follow suit with the plan of four of the country’s top universities to adjust their school calendar. The University of the Philippines and Ateneo De Manila University have announced that they will shift to an August to May school calendar, from the current June to March calendar. Spurred by the upcoming Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) economic integration next year, the country’s top universities have laid plans to synchronize their school calendars with their counterparts in Asean and the region’s partner nations. From Philippine Star, last March 2014, Florez stated the following in her article: The technical working group created by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to study the academic calendar shift will submit its recommendations on Monday, an education official revealed yesterday. “The TWG-AC will present their recommendations to CHED management committee/Commission en banc on Monday subject to approval of the commission,” said the CHED official. The CHED created the high-level Technical Working Group on the Academic Calendar (TWG-AC) to carefully study and provide recommendations on the school calendar shift. The TWG-AC is composed of stakeholders from the education sector and is headed by former CHED chair and University of the East president Ester Garcia. Other members of TWG-AC are the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations, Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, Department of Education, National Youth Commission and representatives from large universities and small colleges. The University of the Philippines, except its campus in Diliman, and Ateneo de Manila University had announced their shift from a June-March school year to August-May calendar. From Here’s to Life, last February 2014, Jane stated the following in her article: Who would ever have imagined it! My whole life, school always began in June and ended in March. But starting 2014, some schools will be shifting academic calendar by beginning in August and ending in May. The first to announce the change is the University of the Philippines, which will implement the new academic calendar with the 2014-15 school year in the following constituent units: UP Manila, UP Los Baños, UP Baguio, UP Visayas (all campuses: Iloilo, Miag-ao, and Tacloban), UP Open University, and UP Cebu, according to this Rappler article. But did you notice the list still hasn’t included UP Diliman (UPD)? It appears more consultation is needed with UPD’s stakeholders, which they will be doing in the coming weeks.

From Wikipedia, Anonymous person stated the following in the article: The Philippine school year runs for ten months, and a school year must be at least 200 days as prescribed by law. The school year begins on the first week of June and ends on the last week of March. In most schools, summer break usually lasts for two months, starting from the first week of April up to the last week of May. Most schools end the school year before Holy Week. The Christmas Break usually begins in the third week of December, and classes resume the Monday or week after New Year's Day (unless that Monday is January 2). Commencement ceremonies are often held in late March or early April. In most primary and secondary schools, an academic year is usually divided in quarters for purposes of examination and reporting of marks. Each quarter normally lasts for approximately two to two and one-half months but the actual length of each quarter varies among private schools. In most schools, each quarter culminates with a quarterly examination period of three to five days. The second quarter begins immediately after the first quarter exams. There is a one-week break between the second and third quarters called the semestral break (sem break) though some schools may officially begin their third quarter shortly before the sem break. The sem break commonly coincides with All Saints' Day. The Christmas break runs for around two weeks between December and January. Some schools use all the remaining months of the school year after the Christmas break for the fourth quarter. For most universities and colleges, an academic year is divided into two semesters, each up to 18 weeks long except for senior students in their final semester where they end the semester two weeks earlier. Enrollment/registration in an institution is usually good for only one semester: a student who successfully registers for the first semester is not automatically enrolled to study in the second semester. The student will need to successfully complete clearance requirements and in a few cases, maintain a certain overall mark in order to progress in her university studies in the next semester. The first semester is followed by a break consisting of two to four weeks before the second semester, called the Semestral Break, which usually occurs between the second week of October to the second week of November for all universities and colleges. The Semestral Break can be two to three weeks long, and normally includes the All Saints' and All Souls' holidays. Other schools such as Technological University of the Philippines-Taguig Campus, De La Salle University and Far Eastern University - East Asia College operate under a trimestral system. Classes start in the fourth week of May and ends in the third week of April. Under this system, students are typically able to finish their academic studies a year earlier than those from other universities with a semestral programme. Mapúa Institute of Technology began using the quarterly system with eleven weeks to a term after its acquisition by the Yuchengco Group. This allows their engineering programmes to be completed a year ahead of schools running on a semestral schedule. Exceptions to this schedule are international schools operating in the country, which normally follow the Western schedule of September to June, or that home country's respective school system. Moreover, starting academic year 2014-2015, Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines will begin the said year at around the same time as most of their other counterparts in the northern hemisphere (September to early October).

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter shows the methods and techniques of the study, the research design, respondent, research instrument, data gathering procedure, data processing and statistical treatment. Research Design The researcher used the descriptive method and gathered information through the use of a survey questionnaire as an instrument, to give the respondents more time to provide their answers freely and independently. The descriptive method was used to find out the level of awareness of the students from the College of Business and Administration of New Era University to the implementation of the new academic calendar in the Philippines. Respondent The researcher chose 30 respondents to answer the survey questionnaire. The 30 respondents are students from the College of Business Administration of the New Era University. Research Instrument Closed format type of questions are present, such as multiple choice questions, where respondents are restricted to choose among any of the given multiple choice answers. The researcher chose this type of questionnaire because it is easy to perform preliminary analysis using this type. The questionnaire is composed of 10 items questions. Data Gathering Procedure With the cooperation of the students from the College of Business Administration, the researcher was able to collect data that are needed to know about the level of awareness of the students to the topic. The research spent one day in collecting all the data needed. Data Processing The results were analyzed to determine the level of awareness of the students. Afterwards, the researcher classified, analyzed interpret and presented the data in the form of graph.

Chapter 4
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Graph 1
Awareness of the respondents to the implementation of new academic calendar in the Philippines
Yes:

=22 Respondents No: =8 Respondents

73% of the respondents said that they are aware of the implementation of the new academic calendar in the country because they heard or read it in the news, while 27% of the respondents said that they are not aware of the implementation of the new academic calendar in the country because they did not have time to watch or read the news. Graph 2 Reaction of the respondents if they are against the decision of New Era University for not implementing the new academic calendar

70% of the respondents said that they approve the decision of the New Era University to not implement the new policy of the new academic calendar because they do not want the policy, while 30 % of the respondents said that they are against the decision of the university to not implement the policy. Graph 3 The reason of the respondents for implementing the new policy
To be in line with other countries: =8 Respondents Climate:

=10 Respondents

To make the education in the Philippines =12 Respondents better:

27 % of the respondents said that if they will be given a chance to implement the policy, their main reason is to be in line with other countries. Then, 33 % of the respondents stated the country's state of climate as their main reason in implementing the policy, and 40% stated the current status of the Education in the country as their reason.
Graph 4
Response of the respondents if the policy can affect their learning habits

60% of the respondents said that the implementation of the new academic calendar can affect their learning habits because it will confuse them, while 40% responded that they will not be affected because they can adopt with the changes.