EDITORIAL - Insulating from heat

It may be cold comfort for Filipinos to know that we are not alone in sweltering in the heat of the dry season. A report yesterday said extreme heat is shutting down schools not only in the Philippines but also in several other countries in Asia and North Africa.

According to news reports, heat is forcing the shutdown of schools not only in places such as Bangladesh, Thailand, India and South Sudan, but increasingly even in cooler countries such as the United States as heatwaves last longer and become more intense.

Studies have shown that cognitive functions are slowed down by heat. This has raised concern that worsening heatwaves could widen the learning gap. The wealthy study in schools with air-conditioning and small class sizes, while the poor swelter in schools cramped by a large student population, in rooms that lack proper ventilation. Even when such schools shift to distance learning and other alternative modes of education, many students live in cramped homes that also lack ventilation and where the environment is not conducive to learning.

The unbearable heat has prompted the Department of Education to propose to President Marcos, among several options, a speedier return to the pre-pandemic academic calendar of June to March, with the school break coinciding with the peak of the Philippine summer. Beyond adjusting the school calendar, the government should work to improve insulation and ventilation in state-run schools.

The importance of proper ventilation was highlighted during the COVID pandemic, when health experts said proper air circulation could lower the risk of infection. Apart from proper ventilation, building design and insulation can be improved to reduce indoor heat. There are widely available construction materials that insulate against high temperatures.

New school buildings can also be designed with higher ceilings lined with heat insulation materials. While this requires additional funding, the investment will pay off in terms of a more comfortable learning environment, especially if combined with improved ventilation. While the government cannot afford to provide air-conditioning to all public schools, there are construction interventions and architecture designed for the tropics that minimize heat.

El Niño has been blamed for the ongoing high temperatures. With global warming, however, this could be the norm for the Philippine summer in the coming years. The earlier the country invests in measures to make classrooms better suited for education, the lower the risk of widening the learning gap.