Students should not have to choose between their safety and their education, the National Union of Students of the Philippines said Sunday, rejecting the notion that class suspensions during dangerous weather are responsible for the country’s learning crisis.

Responding to Education Commission 2 (EDCOM 2) Executive Director Karol Mark Yee’s warning that repeated suspensions could worsen learning gaps, NUSP said floods, impassable roads and other hazards make suspensions necessary and that the deeper problem lies in chronic underfunding and government neglect.

“Students and teachers must not risk their lives to meet certain metrics based on output rather than holistic development and overall well-being,” NUSP said.

Instead, the government should address the conditions that undermine learning even when classes are in session, the group said, pointing to dilapidated classrooms, overworked and underpaid teachers and inadequate support services for students.

NUSP also criticized the proposed 2027 national budget, saying the Department of Education faces a 39.3 billion peso cut, while 49 state universities and colleges face combined reductions of 3.34 billion pesos.

The group contrasted these cuts with what it described as a roughly 178 billion peso increase in proposed infrastructure spending, warning that such projects could become vulnerable to corruption and divert resources from education.

NUSP said the government should not shift the burden of the learning crisis onto students and teachers while failing to address what it considers the structural causes of poor learning outcomes.

“Class suspensions do not create the learning crisis. Government neglect does. Chronic underfunding does. Corruption does,” the group said.