Senate President Sherwin T. Gatchalian on Sunday urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to carry out localized rather than blanket class suspensions, arguing that schools can protect students from weather-related hazards without adding to the country's learning losses.

DepEd laid the groundwork for such an approach in June, when it announced its 4H framework — Hayo (Continue), Hinay (Slow Down), Hinga (Breathe), and Hinto (Stop) — which allows schools to determine localized adjustments based on their own assessment of school-level risks. In practice, the framework shifts the suspension decision away from a single system-wide call and toward individual campuses, letting classes continue where conditions allow while scaling back where hazards are acute.

Blanket class suspensions and sweeping cancellations, Mr. Gatchalian said, could open gaps in students' learning that would deepen the Philippines' education crisis.

The warning comes as El Niño — the climate pattern marked by abnormal warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific — typically brings hotter and drier conditions to the Philippines, heightening the risk of dangerously high heat levels that have in the past forced the suspension of in-person classes.

Data cited in the statement underscore how much instructional time Philippine schools have already lost, and why the localized-versus-blanket distinction carries weight. The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), the body created by Congress to review the state of Philippine education, reported in January that 30.5% of Grade 3 learners posted proficient to highly proficient scores in early language, literacy, and numeracy — a figure that declines steeply to 19.56% in Grade 6 and 0.4% in Grade 12.

In a separate report released in September, EDCOM II found that most public elementary schools lost 20 teaching days in School Year 2025-2026 because of hazard-related class suspensions. Each suspended school day, it said, amounts to 1.4 days of lost reading progress — a measure of the cost Mr. Gatchalian's appeal seeks to contain.

With the 4H framework already in place, how schools apply its graduated tiers as heat risks rise will shape how much instructional time survives the hot season.

"El Niño threatens not only the safety of students but also their ability to learn," Mr. Gatchalian said in a statement. "We must ensure that our students' knowledge does not regress, as this would further exacerbate our education crisis."

— Francessca S. Abalos