Schools may suspend face-to-face classes due to heat — Task Force El Niño

Both private and public schools across the country have been given the green light to suspend in-person classes due to scorching temperatures in the country, Task Force El Niño said on Tuesday.

"Let us make that clear. Administrators of private and public schools have discretionary power to suspend face-to-face classes," Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCO) Assistant Secretary and Task Force El Niño spokesperson Joey Villarama told Palace reporters in a chance interview.

This authority comes from Department Order No. 37 issued by the Department of Education (DepEd) last April. Villarama emphasized that the well-being of students and school personnel is paramount.

"The consideration here is the safety and health of students, teaching personnel, and non-teaching personnel. So if the administrators believe that it is not safe for students and personnel to remain inside the school premises due to extreme heat, it is best to suspend face-to-face classes and shift to online modes of learning," Villarama said.

"It's better to err on the side of caution by suspending and shifting to online modes rather than having students experience dizziness, headaches, and nosebleeds due to the intensity of the heat," Villarama added.

In a separate television interview, the Department of Education (DepEd) said the regional directors and superintendents possess the authority to adjust class schedules either to mornings or late afternoons.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said the schools division offices in Metro Manila last year altered the class timetables to alleviate the effects of the intense heat on both students and teachers.

"Because of the intolerable heat, our schools division offices issued directives to modify their class schedules to have earlier start times in the morning, and then in the afternoon, to start later in order to avoid the excessively hot period during the middle of the day," Bringas said.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has additionally cautioned school administrators that they have the autonomy to determine whether face-to-face classes should be halted in their schools due to the heat exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon.

The organization also declared that students and teachers have the option to wear more comfortable attire, within the bounds of dress codes, apart from their standard uniforms, in order to alleviate the heat they experience while within school premises.