Delayed DepEd Announcement of Suspension In Times Of Extreme Heat, Cruel At Its Best

Two points of contention: first,  it is always a lagging announcement ; two, the mode of learning is not shifted to online despite the glaring need to be flexible in school settings.

Before 11 am, as afternoon class students make their way to their schools in a first-class city in Laguna,  passing through several streets that seem beyond scorching but also a brunt against all odds, the routine to schooling seems to be as normal as it gets-- as young kids seem to be undisturbed by the severe heat engulfing.

But old people know that it ain't so normal, at least the weather locally.  

With the extreme heat fuelling each human body temperature to a high treat,  most local school children show endurance while walking innocently under the blaze of the sun.  

Even when it is a double threat as households  have to battle  "no-electricity" hours as Meralco had announced the day before, schools in Laguna went on with their regular classes, unminding the continued extreme hot weather, forecasted to reach 36 to 41 degrees this Thursday to Monday of March.

Still there were no announcement of class suspension, with the DepEd perhaps more worried about lacking in calendar days already, rather than pursuing a paradigm shift to what learning must be in these days of unbearable sun,  at the onset of summer.

Surmise to say, the Philippines is still stuck in the rut of traditional schooling, favoring more face-to-face classes to ensure  regular attendance rather than looking at the viability of online classes as a semi-permanent safer mode of learning in the country.

Perhaps, local officials have yet to notice that no moms under normal circumstances would actually dare challenge the way things are in Philippine education. 

How can they be proactive in recommending or complaining about changing the policies of DepEd  to pursue online modality instead,  to keep kids safe from the weather?   When in truth, a good chunk of the populace, is comprised by moms who do not have cars or SUVs to drive their kids to school, and who do not even bring an umbrella during the summer peak, when the weather rise to up to 36 to 41 degrees Celsius?  

Holding their kids with bare hands and an eagle focus on getting to school is all that matters, above that of putting kids to safety as even the DepEd seems to lack in early advise and "will of necessity" to suspend classes even as it is the most logical route to do.

This lack of flexibility and exercise of advance precaution ails the current state of learning environment for the school kids. 

No suspension of classes during the very hot weather, double it with a no-electricity announcement by Meralco, is really cruelty at its best policy.

Commentary. NRP 081025