For the lucky Filipinos who went to polling centers known as classrooms to cast their votes in the recent elections, they only spent up to 20 minutes in the area. For others, it took them hours due to long lines, malfunctioning machines, or some other reason.
No matter how long, there is one common denominator in our experience: extreme heat.
No, there is no strong El Niño this year; this is simply the new normal. This is the effect of the climate crisis that we have been warning the nation about for decades now.
We feel that extreme heat for too many times every year now, but especially on Election Day. At least we only experienced it in those classrooms during that day. Can you imagine how the young students of today are coping with this on a daily basis?
The reality of classrooms
Unfortunately, that is simply one of the many problems plaguing the Philippine education system. These range from millions of Filipinos being functionally illiterate to the shortage of 165,000 classrooms, from alleged anomalies in procuring laptops to a shortage of tens of thousands of teachers every year.
Yet the conditions inside classrooms and campuses, as influenced by the climate, are becoming an even bigger risk to the health and learning capacity of millions of children and youth. Class suspensions due to extreme heat are becoming more common. Even celebrities are calling attention to classroom conditions on social media.
Here is one reality that everyone knows but has not been emphasized quite enough: the classroom is turning into a mirror of that classic Filipino trait known as resilience. It is supposed to simply be the breeding ground of the national consciousness, a place dedicated to fostering the literacy of young people and developing knowledge, skills, and values they will use throughout their lives.
Yet in the Philippines, classrooms have become a multi-purpose area used to mask the shortcomings in both infrastructure and leadership in favor of a false sense of creativity and perseverance. Public schools becoming voting centers is a practice in many countries worldwide, as well as these places being used as evacuation centers during times of disasters.
Yet just because it happens all around us does not necessarily mean it should be the way to go, especially for the latter. The lack of proper evacuation centers is likely to continue disrupting learning in areas hit by typhoons and other extreme weather events.
Any issue in the Philippine education system will ultimately harm the present and future of today’s children and youth more than any other sector. And the climate crisis is only going to make these impacts worse.
Adaptation for education
Education is the foundation on which we build the road to sustainable development, including addressing the climate crisis. This means that strengthening climate action within the Philippine education system must go hand-in-hand with addressing the long-running complex issues plaguing this sector for decades.
Aside from the reforms we all have been clamoring fall for our education system – more teachers, more classrooms, more capabilities, more funding – there are several measures that must be taken to specifically address the climate-specific concerns.
First is a higher allotment of climate-related funding. Criticisms have been rampant in recent months about cuts in the 2025 budget of the country’s education sector, particularly with the Department of Education (DepEd). What has not been emphasized as much is the climate angle of this issue.
In the 2025 national budget, accounting for all actions marked by the government’s Climate Change Expenditure Tagging system, DepEd had one of the largest decreases in its climate budget compared to last year. It is worth noting that state universities and colleges collectively have more than twice their budget from 2024. The Department of Public Works and Highways, which has a major role in building classrooms and evacuation centers, also saw a significant increase in its budget for 2025.
Second is for schools to continue fully integrating addressing climate impacts into their disaster preparedness plans. This includes protocols in place for climate-related threats that would not fit into the traditional view of disasters, such as extreme heat. Access to real-time weather updating, suitable early warning systems, and timely and consistent communications with their local government would help in properly planning school activities and reducing disruptions.
Third is on climate-proofing school infrastructure, which can tend to be costly. While not applicable for literally every campus, school staff being capacitated to implement cost-effective measures should be a priority around the country.
For example, maximizing ventilation in school buildings, turning non-essential lights off to reduce heat in the classrooms, placing curtains, and growing nearby small gardens and forests would reduce heat and result in health impacts on students and teachers. The construction of new school infrastructure must take into account similar factors, being aligned with existing green building standards.
Fourth is on the proper integration of climate change topics into the curricula of elementary and high schools across the country. In the country’s National Adaptation Plan, the Philippine government aims to build on the gains in previous year by integrating topics such as adaptation, resilience, loss and damage, and disaster risk reduction into these curricula within the next few years.
The mid-term elections provided us not only a chance to reflect on the state of our nation, but have a close look into the daily reality with which the children and youth of today are dealing. Always remember that whoever you voted for will likely be reflected in the state of our education for the next three years.
John Leo Algo is the national coordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas and the deputy executive director for programs and campaigns of Living Laudato Si’ Philippines. He is also a member of the Youth Advisory Group for Environmental and Climate Justice under the UNDP in Asia and the Pacific. He has been a climate and environment journalist since 2016.