Far away from her home in Munai, Lanao del Norte, Aminah, a fourth-year BS Psychology student, had no choice but to stay in her dormitory in Quezon City during the holidays.

Round-trip airline tickets to Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental would have cost upwards of P8,000 during the holiday season. Coupled with the arduous commute on the way only for her to have to return in a few days, she deemed the trip not worthwhile.

“I’m a little bit sad. Extra sad because all of my friends went home rin,” she said. With classes supposed to end on Saturday and final examinations after that, Aminah was forced to make the hard choice due to the measly 10-day holiday break–the shortest in UP Diliman’s (UPD) recent history.

Tough Choice

The short holiday break caught many students, especially those from Visayas and Mindanao, between a rock and a hard place: either splurge for a round-trip plane ticket that can reach upwards of P10,000 just to go back to UPD after a week or spend the holidays away from family.

Instead of going home to Cagayan de Oro City, Nile, a second-year BS Molecular Biology and Biotechnology student, said his parents decided to go to Manila to spend Christmas together as a family.

It is more economical, he said. The cheapest one-way ticket was around P3,000 when he checked in October. Since he has two siblings in Metro Manila as well, the cheaper option was for their parents to fly to them instead.

“Hindi naman nawala yung essence and spirit pag magkakasama kami. Siguro hindi ko lang talaga na-fully take advantage yung break because we spent it in an unfamiliar place … Hindi ganoon ka-fulfilling yung experience compared to spending the break in the province,” Nile said.

Nile still spent New Year’s Eve alone, as his parents flew back home before January 1. Instead of celebrating in a familiar place with his family and neighbors, Nile had to settle for fireworks in the Manila skyline.

Over 14.5 percent of UP qualifiers since 2020, which now compose the bulk of the student population, are from Visayas and Mindanao. Nile wonders if the UPD administration, which designs the calendar, and the UP president and Board of Regents, which approves the calendar, considered these students in their decisions.

“UP gave longer breaks from previous years, [pero] bakit ngayon, they are trying to squeeze everything para matapos yung sem by a specified date?” Nile said.

Pandemic Disruptions

The squeeze is a remnant of the academic disruption caused by the pandemic.

Before COVID-19 hit, the first semester started in August and ended during the first week of December, with final examinations lasting until the third week. The holiday break doubled as the semestral break, and students returned in mid-January to start the second semester.

When the pandemic hit, UP decided to shift the start of classes for the first semester of the academic year (AY) 2020-2021 from August to September. However, the normal 16-week semester was compressed to just 14 weeks to maintain the scheduled end of classes in early December.

The holiday break since then has always been short, either with classes ending or final examinations starting in early January. Classes during the first semesters of AY 2021-2022 and AY 2022-2023 were mostly held remotely though, so the break was not as disruptive.

No slow adjustments were made throughout those years to return the prepandemic schedule. As a result, the schedule stuck when in-person classes returned. 

Worse, this year’s holiday break is shorter than the breaks during the pandemic years, making it the most impactful.

UPD University Student Council (USC) Councilor Alexandra Lacquian said the shortened break is difficult for students for two reasons: The high demand for transportation makes it difficult for students to travel to their homes and get back to campus, and the short period is not enough to enjoy the holidays and catch up on academic requirements.

Academic Crunch

Isaac, a third-year nonmajor student from the College of Mass Communication, also decided not to go home to Koronadal City–the first time that he would not be able to spend the holidays with his family. But he said all students and even the faculty are affected by academic work during the break.

“Paano mo rin nga naman ma-e-enjoy yung Christmas break mo kung may inaaral ka pang finals or may ginagawang project. If umuwi man ako, ending ko is nagsayang lang ng pera, tapos 80 percent of the time nakababad lang din ako sa computer para mag-aral,” he lamented.

Many assessments, activities, and exams are slated to be done immediately after students return this week, adding another problem to the already-compressed holiday break. 

“The USC holds that no students must be left behind, especially during times when one's rest and overall health are being compromised just to comply with academic requirements,” Lacquian said.

If that is not enough, the transportation strikes and separate reading and Undas breaks have pushed some academic requirements to the end of the semester, so the resumption of classes is packed with these activities and exams. Worse, scheduled maintenance means that UPD’s learning management system UVLê was down for four days during the break.

The USC since December 12 has asked for an academic ease policy from the Office of the Chancellor, requesting that stringent deadlines and required attendance be suspended in consideration of student welfare, but no reply has been given as of writing.

“This was requested instead of moving the academic schedule since, upon consultations with the different colleges, it was identified that some students already have scheduled assessments and other activities in the first week of 2024,” Lacquian explained.

This is Aminah, Nile, and Isaac’s first time to spend the holidays, or part of it, away from home. All of them were forced to make hard decisions in a period that was supposed to be a time for rest and recuperation. Instead, they celebrated Christmas and the New Year without family, overwhelmed with academics. 

Being forced to stay in Manila with no academic ease in sight, Aminah has one simple message to the UP administration:

“Please listen to your students. You can do better.” ●