An official from the Department of Education on Wednesday said that they are not yet looking at reverting back to the previous April and May summer vacation for students, despite the apparent hot weather conditions which state forecasters said may go higher.

“At the moment, there are no plans to revert,” DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said when asked to comment on such recommendations.

“As mentioned in a previous statement, school heads have the discretion to suspend in-person classes and immediately switch to [Alternative Delivery Mode] or Blended learning if the environment is not conducive to learning,” he said.

Earlier, Senate basic education committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian suggested that the summer vacation be brought back to the April–May.

“Kailangan ibalik ‘yan sa dati . It’s time to bring it back, especially now that it’s normal already,” he said.

The senator made the comment with the recent incident in Cabuyao City, Laguna to which there are more than 100 students were taken to a hospital during a surprise fire drill.

The report also said that there were several students who passed out due to hunger and dehydration.

During the day of the drill, it was said that the heat index in the city was somewhere between 39 to 42 degrees Celsius.

Catherine R. Cueto