Philippines says schools can cancel in-person classes to protect students from heat

MANILA – School authorities can suspend in-person classes to protect the health of students and staff, the Philippine Department of Education said Saturday as parts of the country try to cope with the summer heat.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has expressed concern that public schools are ill-equipped to cope with the high temperatures of the dry season.

Department of Education spokesman Michael Pore said principals and superintendents should “suspend face-to-face classes and consider alternative delivery modes if the weather is extremely hot and is already impacting the health of learners and staff.” I remembered that I have the authority and responsibility to switch to

“We also do not want the health of our learners to be affected, especially by the extremely hot temperatures we are experiencing, so we remind the principals again that they can switch to alternative mediums soon. I have,” he said.

Mayor Dennis Hain of Cabuyao City, Laguna Province, has taken steps to address the heat wave that has affected students. in his city.

Hain suspended class on March 24th. This was the day after 83 students were hospitalized for heatstroke during fire and earthquake drills.

In a statement, Cabuyao’s Municipal Schools Department complained that some students had difficulty breathing and that the afternoon heat was “unbearable.”

The incident prompted Senator Sherwin Gatcharian, chairman of the Senate Basic Education Committee, to revive the old school calendar and called on the central government to restore the April-May “summer vacation.” .

“No help”

ACT Executive Director Raymond Basilio said the heat could continue into next month, so the Department of Education is revising old school calendars that start classes in June to avoid holding classes during the hot, dry season. said that it was necessary to return to

“In the Filipino context, especially in public schools, there is a lack of facilities to handle this, so taking classes at this time doesn’t help much,” he told the Inquirer.

Basilio said the decision to order the principal to suspend classes was only a “temporary solution”.

“DepEd needs to take this seriously, in consultation with teachers and other school officials on the ground, and come up with a mechanism to get us back on the old school calendar,” he stressed.

In a Department Order of 11 May 2020, the Education Department decided to move the start of the 2020-21 school year from June to August 2020 due to the pandemic.

This new August-April school calendar was continued by Secretary of Education, Vice President Sarah Duterte, for the 2022-2023 school year.