{"id":37979,"date":"2024-04-29T07:34:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T07:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/philippines-closes-schools-as-heat-soars-to-danger-level\/"},"modified":"2024-04-29T07:34:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T07:34:42","slug":"philippines-closes-schools-as-heat-soars-to-danger-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/philippines-closes-schools-as-heat-soars-to-danger-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines Closes Schools as Heat Soars to \u2018Danger\u2019 Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/29\/multimedia\/29philippines1-gvjf\/29philippines1-gvjf-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Philippines Closes Schools as Heat Soars to \u2018Danger\u2019 Level\" title=\"Philippines Closes Schools as Heat Soars to \u2018Danger\u2019 Level\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Philippines closed all public schools on Monday and Tuesday because of dangerously high temperatures, moving classes online in a country where schools are typically shut because of tropical storms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the past week, average temperatures in many parts of the country topped 40 degrees Celsius, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Extreme heat is forecast this week to blanket almost the entire country, with the heat index in some regions rising to at least 42 degrees Celsius, or \u201cdanger\u201d level, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. That designation is the second highest on the agency\u2019s heat index scale. It advised people to avoid exposure to the sun or risk heat stroke, heat exhaustion and cramps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In metropolitan Manila, where the heat index is forecast to hit 45 degrees Celsius early this week, residents in overcrowded slums have been cooling off by setting up colorful inflatable pools on busy roads. Others in this megacity have been dipping into Manila Bay, flouting rules that prohibit swimming in its polluted waters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In its advisory on school closures, the Department of Education on Sunday said the extreme weather coincided with a nationwide strike of jeepneys, the colorful, open-air vehicles that are the main mode of public transportation in the Philippines. Jeepney drivers are protesting a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/09\/world\/asia\/philippines-jeepney.html\" title=\"\">government plan to phase out their rides<\/a> \u2014 which trace their origins to U.S. military jeeps \u2014 and replace them with modern, more energy-efficient minibuses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The extreme heat had already forced some schools to cancel classes before the government\u2019s call for closures. The Jesus Good Shepherd School in Imus, a city south of Manila, last week sent students back home because of soaring temperatures, even though the private institution is among the small minority of schools in the country that has an air conditioner in every classroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is hard for the students and teachers alike to concentrate, because the air-con is struggling, too,\u201d said Ana Marie Macarimbang, a fifth-grade teacher at the school who has taught for nearly two decades. \u201cWe are in a tropical country, yes, but the heat now is more intense than I can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Weather-related school closures in the Philippines have historically been more common during the typhoon season, which <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph\/climate\/tropical-cyclone-information\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">peaks between July and October<\/a>. The current closures, teacher\u2019s groups have contended, could have been avoided had the authorities not changed the school calendar after the pandemic. The school year now runs from August to May, roughly, rather than the former June-to-March schedule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said that he has no objections to readjusting the school calendar, and blamed climate change for the extreme heat. The government \u201creally didn\u2019t expect it to be like this,\u201d Mr. Marcos said earlier this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Extreme temperatures are also disrupting everyday life in other parts of Asia, including Cambodia and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/e.vnexpress.net\/news\/news\/environment\/heat-waves-to-sweep-across-vietnam-during-long-weekend-holiday-4739328.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Vietnam<\/a>. Earlier this month, a heat wave forced <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/22\/world\/asia\/heatwave-india-bangladesh.html\" title=\"\">schools in Bangladesh and India<\/a> to close.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/29\/world\/asia\/philippines-heat-schools-jeepney.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines closed all public schools on Monday and Tuesday because of dangerously high temperatures, moving classes online in a country where schools are typically shut because of tropical storms. Over the past week, average temperatures in many parts of the country topped 40 degrees Celsius, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Extreme heat is forecast this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/29\/multimedia\/29philippines1-gvjf\/29philippines1-gvjf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21551,4215,1029,2941,412,10387,1474],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37981,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979\/revisions\/37981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}