Just weeks after thousands of Philippine students were sent home from sweltering classrooms during a brutal heat wave, the country’s schools are preparing for a new climate change challenge ahead of the start of Southeast Asia’s typhoon season.
Schools were closed for a number of days as temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius in April and May. Now they will reopen after the holidays in July, instead of August, as authorities have adjusted the education calendar to adapt to extreme weather.
The immediate threat comes from storms when the typhoon season begins in July. In the past, many schools were forced to suspend classes and send students home because classrooms were flooded. Schools were also often used as temporary evacuation centers.
The state weather agency has said the country is likely to experience more tropical cyclones in 2024 than last year due to the possible return of the La Nina weather phenomenon between June and August.
After the extremes caused by El Nino worldwide this year, forecasters predict a shift to generally cooler La Nina conditions in the coming months, with a greater risk of flooding and drought.
Philippine meteorologists have also predicted “stronger and more destructive typhoons” due to climate change.
This is bad news for the country’s 47,000 state schools. In addition to potential damage to physical structures, there are fears that extreme weather will increase inequality in education, because when children are sent home and forced to rely on online learning, the least advantaged suffer the most. “It’s difficult every time classes are suspended due to disasters, and we couldn’t really understand the lessons at home,” said 15-year-old Prince Rivera, who attends Bulihan National High School in Bulacan province, near the capital Manila .
His school has been flooded several times and he too was sent home during the recent heat wave. Xerxes de Castro, primary education advisor at Save the Children Philippines, said climate risk awareness is the first step in making schools resilient to future disasters.
“I think it is now time for schools, students and all stakeholders to learn about the consequences of climate change. It is a hard lesson,” De Castro said.
The Philippines, which topped the World Risk Index in 2022 and 2023 as the world’s most disaster-prone country, is hit by typhoons about 20 times a year.
According to the World Bank, approximately 78% of public schools and 96% of students in the Philippines are exposed to multiple hazards. Between 2021 and 2023, approximately 4,000 schools were damaged due to various disasters, disrupting education for two million children.
On the radar
Education authorities have deployed technology to help deal with extreme weather events and natural disasters linked to climate change.
One tool in use is the Rapid Assessment of Damages Report (RADaR) mobile and web application, which is used by teachers to provide quick updates when schools are hit by disasters.
A mother records a video of her daughter reading a school assignment after the suspension of in-person classes outside their home in Manila on April 26. | REUTERS
Rolled out by the Ministry of Education in partnership with Save the Children and the charity Prudence Foundation, the tool reports on six different types of natural disasters, including storms and typhoons.
“Since its national launch in September 2021, RADaR has been used by more than 30,000 schools in 28 risk events,” Marlon Matuguina, risk mitigation and climate resilience manager at Save the Children Philippines, said in an email.
Heat waves are not yet included in the app because the effects of extremely hot weather are more difficult to quantify.
Data from the app shows that earthquakes are the most common hazard faced by schools, while tropical storms receive the highest number of reports due to the damage caused.
According to Save the Children, to date, RADaR has generated more than 154,000 school-level reports that “provided new insights into the vulnerability of the education sector to hazards.”
Teacher Shago Dela Cruz is the disaster coordinator at Rivera’s school. Before the RADaR app was introduced, he said disaster reporting was slow, but now the app allows him to monitor and record disasters online through closed-circuit television at his school.
A student answers his learning module after in-person classes were suspended at his home in Manila on April 26. | REUTERS
“Teachers don’t have to go to school in person after a disaster and take the risks,” Dela Cruz said.
Preparing for disasters is also critical. The Ministry of Education has said it will invest in insulation, sun protection and ventilation systems. She hopes that these measures will make it possible to keep students at school during warm weather. It also received 17 billion pesos ($291 million) from the national budget this year to build new classrooms that can withstand higher temperatures.
The World Bank also approved a 30 billion pesos loan to help the Philippines better deal with disasters and climate threats, with a focus on schools and hospitals.
The Philippine government says the money will be used to rebuild schools damaged by natural disasters outside the capital. The project will run from 2025-2029 and is expected to benefit more than 13,000 classrooms and approximately 740,000 students, whose buildings were damaged by disasters between 2019 and 2023.
For Save the Children, the message is clear: vulnerable countries need more support to support crucial services, such as schools, in a hotter and wetter world. And the necessary changes don’t just affect brick.
“Resilience is a complex issue,” said De Castro. “We’re not just talking about the infrastructure work, but also…ensuring that teachers and students can deal with any kind of disaster that may arise in the future.”
