Cases of heat stroke are rising not only among the vulnerable, but also among young students who are cooped up inside a classroom for hours. The extreme heat these days, exacerbated by global warming where summer becomes more intense, has seen students dehydrated, heat exhausted, and generally distracted from learning.
Case in point was the incident recently at a school in Cabuyao, Laguna. A surprise fire drill, which gathered students in the school’s lawn, caused dozens of students to faint, experience difficulty in breathing, and feel dizzy. Investigations are currently ongoing to penalize the liable party and determine what safety protocols were violated, but witnesses point out to this culprit — the searing afternoon heat while the drill was being implemented. Though no one had a major health scare and each affected student was able to recover after hospitalization, this incident serves as a wakeup call for education stakeholders to look into the plight of students learning during this dry season.
Various groups have called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to look into this issue, and consider returning to the June-to-March academic calendar, allotting the April to May months instead for the traditional summer break.
This was further echoed by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, who called on schools and the DepEd to review the return of the June-to-March academic calendar. This is to allow “students to go out and enjoy summer with their families as opposed to the rainy season” and a “return to normalcy after the pandemic forced DepEd to move the date of the school opening to August.”
Various groups also expressed support for the academic calendar move, noting that students are not only the ones inconvenienced, but also teachers. With the heat, teachers have to exert more effort to keep the students’ attention on learning as each one tries to position for a share of the electric fan’s wind. It should be noted that among public schools, only a very tiny fraction has air-conditioned classrooms.
As a response, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said that as of the moment, there are no plans to revert the academic calendar, but they have plans to review it. “School heads have the discretion to suspend in-person classes and switch to alternative delivery modes or blended learning if the environment is not conducive to learning,” Poa said. “(However), we will take note of the suggestions and study the matter.”
In relation to the events, the DepEd called on schools to improve the conduct of the unannounced drills moving forward, especially in this kind of weather. In fact, PAGASA has released warnings saying that Filipinos should brace for heat index of 31 to 52 degrees Celsius in the coming days. A 52-degree Celsius weather is classified as an “extreme danger” level and puts people at risk of heat stroke.
As this is being reviewed by the DepEd, classes continue. It should be comforting for parents to know that school heads and principals have the discretion to suspend in-person classes in case of extreme weather conditions. Now, each school has to urgently craft a standard operating procedure on conditions whether to continue — or suspend — a class for that day. This is in order to avoid miscommunication that would further disrupt the already challenging learning process and environment that we currently have.