The education government of the Philippines announced that thousands of schools had canceled in-person sessions on Friday due to dangerously high temperatures in some parts 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 smartest student is not in the mood to answer questions because it’s very hot,” said Mayette Paulino, who teaches a grade two class of around 27 children near Manila.
She said “students feel tired and seem sleepy” as the heat intensified in the afternoon.
The authority to determine whether to transition to remote learning “in cases of extreme heat and other calamities” has been granted to school heads by an advisory released by the Department of Education, which is in charge of over 47,000 schools across the country.
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.
