MANILA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Just weeks after thousands of Filipino students were sent home from sweltering classrooms during a brutal heatwave, the country’s schools are bracing for a new climate change challenge ahead of the start of the typhoon season in Southeast Asia. Schools were closed for several days as temperatures soared to over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in April and May. Now they are due to reopen after the holidays in July, rather than August, as authorities rework the education calendar to adapt to extreme weather.
The immediate threat comes from storms as typhoon season starts in July. In the past, many schools would be forced to suspend lessons and send pupils home as classrooms were flooded. Schools were also often used as temporary evacuation centres.
The state weather bureau has said the country is likely to experience more tropical cyclones in 2024 than last year due to the potential return of the La Nina weather phenomenon between June-August. After the extremes caused worldwide by El Nino this year, forecasters are predicting a swing to generally cooler La Nina conditions in the coming months, with a greater risk of floods and drought. Filipino 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. As well as potential damage to physical structures, there is a fear that extreme weather will deepen educational inequalities beca.