Last week, more than 100 students in a school in Laguna were rushed to a hospital after experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion during an unannounced fire and earthquake drill.
That unfortunate event prompted calls for the Department of Education to revert the schedule of the school break to April and May, normally the country’s hottest months of the year, which the DepEd had previously used as a reason to reject calls to move the opening of classes from June to August or September.
However, DepEd was forced to move the school opening to October in 2020, due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, and the ensuring shift has affected subsequent schedules, with classes having started in August 2022 for the current academic year.
Now that students and teachers in cramped classrooms are experiencing the extreme heat of peak dry season in the Philippines, many are suggesting to revert to the previous school break schedule.
Aside from Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, citing an online survey of over 117,000 teachers, have shown support for such proposals.
The DepEd has said it has no plans to revert to the previous schedule, saying instead that school heads have the discretion to suspend in-person classes and switch to alternative modes of learning if the environment is not conducive to learning, such as the occurrence of extreme heat, its spokesman, Michael Poa also said they will take note of the suggestions and study the matter.
The extreme heat of the dry season in the Philippines, which normally peaks between March and May, is no joke, especially in crowded classrooms with poor ventilation, more so if the school in in an urban area. Now that the school calendar has been shifted by the pandemic, this is a hot topic that the DepEd has to face. Are they going to revert to the old schedule to avoid further potential heatstroke cases among students, will our public schools be somehow better equipped against the notoriously hot days of this time of year, or will Filipino parents have to prepare for their kids being arbitrarily sent home every time the school management decides its simply too hot?*
