Struggles Persist in Turning Philippines' Schools into Eco-Friendly Institutions amidst Pressing Climate Challenges
In the face of increasing climate-related hazards such as heatwaves, floods, and tropical cyclones, the Philippines is taking steps to make its schools more resilient. The focus is primarily on climate-resilient infrastructure improvements.
Key measures include ensuring school buildings have sufficient ventilation to cope with heat, especially since air conditioning is not uniformly available. Designing and retrofitting school buildings to be heat-proof, flood-proof, and earthquake-proof is also crucial to withstand extreme weather events and natural disasters. Locating new schools away from flood-prone zones and other hazard-prone areas is another important aspect.
Adopting nature-based solutions and community engagement for local hazard mitigation and ecosystem conservation near school areas is also being considered. Improving hybrid learning platforms to maintain educational access for students in climate-vulnerable areas, especially marginalized groups, by enhancing digital infrastructure and accessibility, is part of the push for hybrid learning options in these schools.
The Philippine Department of Education acknowledges a critical shortage of classrooms and resilient infrastructure. Projections suggest that fully resolving this infrastructure challenge might take more than 50 years. Teachers' groups advocate for more government investment beyond scheduling changes, emphasizing urgent infrastructure upgrades to adapt to climate risks.
Funding for education infrastructure faces challenges. There appears to be underfunding and slow progress in making schools climate-resilient. Larger community resilience projects, supported by entities like the World Bank, prioritize infrastructure investments against climate hazards, but specific direct funding for school infrastructure remains limited or slow to impact nationwide.
However, the funding climate is improving through international and local partnerships focusing on resilient infrastructure and climate adaptation. Implementation in education infrastructure specifically lags behind.
In the interim, enhancing hybrid learning is seen as a way to reduce educational disruptions caused by climate hazards. Teachers, who often work in school clinics or counselling offices without additional pay, are also spending their own money to buy electric fans or raising donations to improve ventilation in classrooms.
The story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, which covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking, and property rights. The story is related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Health), 4 (Education), 9 (Infrastructure), 10 (Inequality), 11 (Cities), 13 (Climate), 16 (Peace), and 17 (Partnerships).
[1] Thomson Reuters Foundation. (2022). Building Climate-Resilient Schools in the Philippines. [Online]. Available: https://www.trust.org/item/20220823113407-lx46u/ [2] Department of Education. (2021). Philippine Education Sector Roadmap 2030. [Online]. Available: https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/PESR-2030-Final-Version.pdf [3] World Bank. (2020). Philippines Community Resilience Project "Pagkilos". [Online]. Available: https://www.worldbank.org/en/project/philippines-community-resilience-project-pagkilos [4] Teachers' Forum. (2021). Call for Urgent Action: Climate-Vulnerable Schools and Hybrid Learning. [Online]. Available: https://www.teachersforum.ph/call-for-urgent-action-climate-vulnerable-schools-and-hybrid-learning/
- The Philippines is working to make schools more resilient in the face of climate change by focusing on climate-resilient infrastructure improvements, such as designing and retrofitting school buildings to be heat-proof, flood-proof, and earthquake-proof.
- Adopting nature-based solutions and community engagement for local hazard mitigation and ecosystem conservation near school areas is being considered as part of the push to make schools climate-resilient.
- Improving hybrid learning platforms is part of the push for hybrid learning options in schools, with the aim of maintaining educational access for students in climate-vulnerable areas, especially marginalized groups.
- The funding climate for making schools climate-resilient is improving through international and local partnerships, but there appears to be underfunding and slow progress in this area.
- The story about building climate-resilient schools in the Philippines is related to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 3 (Health), Goal 4 (Education), Goal 9 (Infrastructure), Goal 10 (Inequality), Goal 11 (Cities), Goal 13 (Climate), Goal 16 (Peace), and Goal 17 (Partnerships).
