- Extreme heat in the Philippines, exacerbated by climate change and El Nino, caused widespread school suspensions and learning loss, prompting adaptations like adjusted schedules and classroom provisions.
- Despite these measures, significant challenges remain, including inadequate infrastructure, classroom shortages, and the limitations of alternative learning methods compared to face-to-face interaction.
- Educators and students in Manila are on the frontlines, grappling with dangerously high temperatures that make teaching and learning difficult, underscoring the urgent need for greater resources and sustainable solutions.
MANILA, April 12 — Kindergarten teacher Lolita Akim fires up five standing fans, with three more at the ready, as she fights to hold the attention of her pint-sized pupils in Manila’s soaring heat.
Last year, heatwaves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school. It was the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions, prompting a series of changes.
This school year started two months earlier than usual, so the term ends before peak heat in May. Classes have been rearranged to keep children out of the midday heat, and schools are equipped with fans and water stations.
The moves are examples of how countries are adapting to the higher temperatures caused by climate change, often with limited resources.
As a teacher, Akim is on the frontlines of the battle to keep her young charges safe and engaged.
“In this weather, they get drenched in sweat; they become uneasy and stand up often. Getting them to pay attention is more difficult,” she said of the five-year-olds in her care at the Senator Benigno S. Aquino Elementary School.
Some six million students lost up to two weeks’ worth of classroom learning last year as temperatures hit a record 38.8 degrees Celsius, according to the education department.
Schools reported cases of heat exhaustion, nosebleeds and hospitalisations as students struggled through lessons in classrooms without air conditioning.
Scientists say that extreme heat is a clear marker of climate change, caused largely by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Last year’s heat was further exacerbated by the seasonal El Niño phenomenon.
But even this year, nearly half of Manila’s schools were forced to close for two days in March when the heat index – a measure of temperature and humidity – hit “danger” levels.
“We’ve been reporting (the heat index) since 2011, but it’s only been recently that it’s become exceptionally warm,” national weather service specialist Wilmer Agustin told AFP, attributing it to “El Niño and climate change”.
This year, conditions in most of the country will range between “extreme caution” and “danger” on the government’s heat alert system, he said, “especially in April and May”.
On Friday, scores of schools in Manila were shuttered as temperatures were expected to hit 34°C, while the national weather service said the heat index for at least five provinces would reach the danger level.
Students work on activities next to fans at an elementary school in Baseco, Manila on March 21, 2025. — AFP pic
‘Significant’ impact
During last year’s closures, alternative learning helped make up some of the gap.
But “the overall impact on students’ education was significant”, said Jocelyn Andaya, assistant education secretary for operations.
So this year, a series of measures have been instated to avoid further learning loss.
Classroom sessions have been shortened to four hours a day – avoiding the searing midday sun – and water stations were installed in each classroom as well as at least two oscillating wall fans.
Some newer schools have heat-reflective roofs, and bigger ones now employ nurses.
Just three per cent of students affected by last year’s heatwaves were able to access online classes, so this year printed material was prepared for students if they must stay home.
Even so, Benigno Aquino school principal Noel Gelua cautioned that “there is no real alternative to face-to-face learning”.
But there are limits to what can be done, given the education department has a budget of just 10 billion pesos for climate adaptation, infrastructure and disaster readiness.
The Philippines also has a perennial classroom shortage, with 18,000 more needed in the capital alone.
Manila’s public schools do two shifts per day, with about 50 students in each room, exacerbating the heat problem.
Fifth-grader Ella Azumi Araza, 11, can only attend four days a week due to the shortage.
On Fridays, she studies in her family’s nine-square-metre cinderblock home on a bed she shares with her younger brother, who suffers from epilepsy.
Three electric fans are always on in the windowless, single-room structure.
As hot as it is at home, her mother Cindella Manabat still frets about conditions at school, saying that she comes home coughing.
“I make her carry a jug of water to prevent dehydration,” she said.
‘Difficult to teach’
Across the street from Benigno Aquino, eighth-graders at President Corazon C. Aquino High School aimed tiny, rechargeable fans at their bodies while taking an algebra quiz.
Two of the four ceiling fans in the room had broken down and the remaining two were clearly not enough for the 40 students.
“It is very difficult to teach in the heat,” their teacher Rizzadel Manzano said.
“Motivating them is really a challenge.”
A school uniform requirement was ditched earlier this year, and students now wear sweatpants and T-shirts donated by the city, principal Reynora Laurenciano told AFP.
Both schools are located in a densely populated slum area called Baseco, where conditions at home can be even more dire, she added.
“If you ask them, they consider (school) a safer place,” Laurenciano said. — AFP