MANILA: The education department reported that thousands of schools in the Philippines cancelled in-person sessions on Friday due to dangerously high temperatures in some areas of the tropical nation.
The nation of the archipelago usually has the hottest and driest months in March, April, and May, but this year’s El Nino weather phenomena has made things worse.
Many schools lack air conditioning, so pupils must suffer in stuffy, inadequately ventilated classrooms.
“Even my most intelligent student is not feeling well to respond to questions because of the heat,” Mayette Paulino, a grade two teacher in a neighborhood outside of Manila, remarked.
As the midday heat increased, she stated, “Students feel tired and seem sleepy.”
In an advice, the Department of Education—which is in charge of over 47,000 schools across the country—granted school administrators the authority to determine whether to transition to remote learning “in cases of extreme heat and other calamities.”
Following 4,769 schools on Thursday, 5,288 schools on Friday halted in-person lessons, impacting almost 3.6 million students, according to official estimates.
The hardest afflicted areas of the main island of Luzon were the central provinces, where over 1,600 schools cancelled in-person lessons on Friday. In Manila alone, nearly 300 schools used remote learning.
In order to avoid teaching during the warmest parts of the day, some schools have shortened their class schedules.
According to the state weather forecaster, on Friday the heat index was predicted to hit the “danger” level of 42 or 43 degrees Celsius in a number of regions of the nation.
The heat index in Manila was predicted to reach 40C (104F), or the “extreme caution” level, when heat exhaustion and cramps could occur.
The nation’s heat index calculates the perceived temperature while accounting for humidity.
