Philippines struggling to ready underfunded schools for climate hazards
Over the past decade, the government had adjusted school calendars to avoid typhoon season, which typically begins in June. But after heat waves forced schools to shut down in the summer months of April and May, the government reverted to a June-to-March school calendar this year to avoid the peak heat index.
While teachers' groups welcome the change, they want the government to do more than tweak the calendar and also invest in infrastructure that will make schools resilient to heat and storms.
The Philippines' education sector is still reeling from natural calamities that damaged school buildings and exacerbated a classroom shortage the Department of Education puts at 165,000 classrooms this school year.
The department has set a target classroom size of 35 students for primary school and 40 students for high school. News reports say the metropolitan region of Manila has an average of 48 students per classroom.
The classroom crisis is worsening the impact of climate change on Filipino children, with at least 96% of them experiencing multiple, overlapping climate-related hazards like floods, heat waves and tropical cyclones, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.
With limited funding for repairs and maintenance, the education department each year asks parents, teachers and students to volunteer to clean, repair and organize classrooms a week before schools open.
A student uses her bag as protection against the sun outside an elementary school in Manila in April 2024. |
REUTERS
Parents and teachers often fill the funding gaps in school maintenance by donating electric fans and paint or offering free labor, said Benjo Basas, a high school teacher and spokesperson of the Teachers' Dignity Coalition, a nonprofit group advocating for Filipino teachers' rights.
"The solution to this problem in the education sector is not to ask for help from the community, but to increase the budget of schools for repairs, operation and infrastructure, which is the obligation of the state," said Basas.
Greening schools
Climate-proofing classrooms and improving emergency preparedness are crucial to greening schools, according to the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has long promised to make schools "climate-ready." His plan includes retrofitting schools and building more infrastructure that can withstand climate disasters.
The Department of Education defines a climate-ready school as a "safe, resilient, learning-conducive, inclusive and green school infrastructure."
But greening Philippine schools remains daunting.
A 2024 study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies think tank noted that classroom congestion persists as enrollment increases and as existing classrooms deteriorate due to wear and tear and natural disasters.
The study noted in 2020 that access to electricity remains a problem in some Philippine schools, with more than 39,000 schools needing upgrades of their connections to support ventilation and prevent electrical current fluctuations and fires.
Underfunded classrooms
For Raymond Basilio, an educator and secretary-general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers Philippines, returning to the old calendar is only a first step towards preventing learning loss, or a decline in academic skills and knowledge, that can occur due to extreme weather events.
While UNESCO recommends that countries allocate 4% to 6% of gross domestic product to education, the Philippines has never achieved this goal, spending around 3% of GDP on education, according to the Second Congressional Commission on Education, which is undertaking an assessment of the education sector.
"Since 2022, we have seen a recurring problem of underutilizing the Department of Education's quick reaction fund, which is supposed to be used for repairs of classrooms damaged by typhoons and other natural calamities," said Basilio.
Children play amid flooding at a school temporarily converted into an evacuation center following heavy rains brought by Typhoon Gaemi, in Marikina City, Metro Manila, Philippines, in July 2024. |
REUTERS
Reducing classroom congestion, which makes children more vulnerable to health issues during heat waves, requires building new classrooms and hiring more personnel, including school nurses or doctors, instead of overburdening teachers.
As public schools grapple for funding, teachers often step up to fill the gaps. Some teachers have to work in school clinics or counseling offices without additional pay.
"Despite having other tasks, teachers will prioritize their students and intervene whenever there are gaps, including providing additional services in schools, even without being professionally equipped for these tasks," said Basilio.
In some schools, Basas said teachers will spend their own money to buy electric fans or raise donations to improve ventilation in classrooms.
Climate resilience
Both Basas and Basilio believe addressing climate risks in Philippine schools is an infrastructure issue.
"A truly resilient Philippine classroom is one with sufficient ventilation, because not all schools can provide air conditioning. We should also ensure that schools are away from flood zones. Those are just the basics," said Basilio.
Instead of reacting to heat waves and storms as they happen, Basas suggested making crucial changes along the way.
"Are school buildings heat-proof and earthquake-proof? If it rains, are we assured that campuses will not be submerged in flood? We still have a lot of those cases in the Philippines that we have yet to resolve," he said.
The Department of Education, however, said resolving the country's classroom shortage may take more than half a century.
In the meantime, teachers' groups have urged the government to improve hybrid learning options for climate-vulnerable schools, which includes improving poor and marginalized students' access to digital learning.
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