21/08/2026
๐ช๐ต๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฆ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐น๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ผ๐บ
"๐๐๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐จ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐, ๐๐ช๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ค๐ค๐ ๐ค๐ ๐จ๐๐๐ค๐ค๐ก๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐จ ๐ค๐ฃ๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ฅ๐ค๐ช๐ง โ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐จ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐ข ๐จ๐ช๐ง๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐ช๐จ๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ ๐๐๐ฃ'๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ฃ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐ฉ!โ
A class suspension may mean a rescheduled exam, a moved deadline, or a delayed requirement. A day with no classes used to feel like a small gift. It gave students time to rest before facing schoolwork again. This is no longer true. In a country where one storm follows another, that short rest has turned into something worse: weeks of lost learning that students must fix on their own. We must say this clearly, and even DepEd now agrees: the way we suspend classes in the Philippines is not working well, and students are the ones paying the price. But to be clear, class suspensions themselves are not the problem.
Class suspensions are necessary to protect students from dangerous weather conditions. No examination, deadline, or classroom discussion should ever come before their safety. But one question remains amid these prolonged academic delays: ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ง๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ธ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ถ๐ต?
It is easy to think of each suspension as a small, separate problem. But the numbers tell a different story. EDCOM 2 reports that Filipino students should have 180 to 200 school days each year. Instead, they lose 30 to 50 of these days, mostly because of storms and bad weather. That amounts to roughly a quarter of the whole school year. Research has also linked missed school days to lower performance in subjects such as mathematics and science. This adds to a bigger problem: many Filipino students already struggle with reading and basic math skills.
This is not just a guess. As of this August 18, 2026, 607 schools across the country have already stopped face-to-face classes because of monsoon rains and floods. Here is the part that should worry us most: many of these suspensions cover a whole city at once, even when some schools inside that city are dry, safe, and ready for class. DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara has acknowledged that this kind of wide, city-level suspension causes serious harm to learning. When DepEd says the system is hurting the same students it is meant to protect, we should treat this as a clear sign that change is needed now.
DepEd's newer plan makes sense. Instead of automatically keeping every school in a city closed, schools in safe and accessible areas can resume classes while those in affected areas remain closed until conditions improve. We support this plan. What we want next is speed. Since no one can stop a typhoon, the only thing we can control is how fast, how clear, and how local these decisions are made. Protecting the required 180 school days should be treated as seriously as building roads and bridges, because it shapes the country's future in the same way.
This is where the discussion usually stops too early. Even when a suspension is needed and right, what happens after students return to school is often ignored.
Right now, when lessons pile up, teachers try to catch up by teaching faster. But rushing creates gaps, and students find it hard to understand and remember lessons taught in a hurry. Then teachers and schools are left trying to fix the backlog through more homework, tighter deadlines, and make-up work squeezed into the days left. We believe this is the wrong approach. Weeks of lost learning cannot simply be crammed into a few days. It is not fair to make students pay for a storm they did not cause.
According to Cueto & Agaton (2021), students who go through typhoons may experience stress, anxiety, and depression. These are not only emotional problems. They also affect how well students can think and learn, which makes it even harder for them to catch up. This is especially concerning for young people, who are already going through a difficult stage in life as they grow into adulthood.
Students are not the only ones affected. Strong winds and floods can also damage school buildings and pull teachers away from teaching to help with disaster response. This adds more stress and extra work for teachers and school staff, on top of the pressure to help students catch up later.
The rain will stop. The floodwaters will go down. These things are certain. What is not certain and what we can still choose is whether the academic struggle continues even after the storm has passed.
We have treated this second, academic storm as something we cannot avoid, when in truth, we can. Keeping students safe should never mean leaving them to carry a heavy academic burden they did not create. Repeated suspensions can turn a necessary day of safety into weeks of accumulated learning loss, and schools should not keep making this trade without a real plan for recovery.
Sources:
โข https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/999184/explainer-how-can-students-catch-up-after-class-suspensions/story/
โข https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8147095/
โข https://www.internationaljournalcorner.com/index.php/ijird_ojs/article/view/157728
โข https://wepub.org/index.php/IJPHMR/article/view/5159
โข https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1282197
Written by: Crichel Annie Gallega (News and Sports Staff Writer) and Precious Angel Santos (Feature and Literary Staff Writer)
Edited by: Dave Yap (News and Sports Head Editor), Myrje Lou Sarcia (Associate Editor - Internal), and Ellaine Villasis (Editor-in-Chief)
Illustration by: Joseph Vince Dela Cruz (Editorial Cartoonist) and Jeffrey Molina (Head Cartoonist)
