The Department of Education said it is working to establish a uniform national class suspension protocol to curb learning loss amid national disasters.

“Just like what President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said, we need to face and prepare for the challenges that disasters bring to education,” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara said in Filipino in a news release.

“We cannot stop the storm, but we can prepare better so that decisions are swift, clear, and well-coordinated when the safety and future of our children are at stake,” he added.

To address the worsening impact of the climate crisis, the Education department, together with other government agencies, aims to develop a Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) advisory template to help local governments issue a “timely and consistent” suspension announcement.

The agencies also agreed to require regional and division offices to report the frequency and impact of class suspensions and publish official data on lost school days.

Meanwhile, the make-up class policy and Alternative Delivery Modes (ADM) will be strengthened to keep learners engaged when in-person classes are cancelled.

“While modular and online learning options have helped sustain instruction during disruptions, DepEd noted that these cannot fully replace face-to-face learning, especially for younger students who still depend on close teacher guidance,” the department said.

Under DepEd Order 22, Series of 2024, local executives, school division superintendents, and school heads have the authority to suspend classes based on advisories from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), field conditions, and readiness to resume learning.

Citing the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the DepEd said that every additional day of school closure decreases a Grade 4 student’s achievement by up to 12.4 points in mathematics and 13.9 points in science.

The study added that 10 class suspensions can lower a child’s science score from 500 to below 380.

In the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) report for School Year 2023-2024, more than 20 school days were lost due to climate-related events, impacting over 11 million learners, or about 42% of the public school population.

“We understand that safety must always come first,” Mr. Angara said. “But we also need to be ready to help students recover from lost time. Our goal is to make every day of learning count, rain or shine.” — Almira Louise S. Martinez