MANILA — Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for a more localized approach to class suspensions, arguing that entire cities or provinces should not automatically lose classroom time when severe weather or disasters affect only certain communities.
Gatchalian said widespread cancellations can protect students and teachers from danger, but they can also deepen the country’s already serious learning-loss problem when schools that remain safe are forced to close.
His proposal comes as the Philippines faces repeated weather-related disruptions, with Gatchalian saying at least 20 weekdays of face-to-face classes had already been disrupted in various parts of the country over the previous 30 days.
One storm does not affect every school the same way
At the heart of Gatchalian’s proposal is a simple argument: class suspensions should reflect conditions on the ground.
A flooded community, damaged school or dangerous road may make it impossible for students and teachers in one locality to safely attend classes. But schools in another nearby area could remain relatively unaffected.
Under a blanket suspension, however, both schools could be closed.
Gatchalian wants local decision-makers to have greater authority to determine whether classes actually need to stop in their respective areas.
He is backing this approach through Senate Bill No. 53, or the 21st Century School Boards Act, which seeks to strengthen local leadership and accountability in basic education governance. The bill was filed in July 2025 and remains pending in committee.
The learning time that disappears every time classes stop
The concern is not simply about missed lessons.
Repeated suspensions can create a chain reaction: teachers have less time to complete the curriculum, students lose opportunities for practice and assessment, and schools have to find ways to recover the lost instructional time.
Gatchalian cited data from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) showing that schools lost an average of 30 to 50 days from the 180-day academic calendar over the past two years because of class suspensions.
EDCOM II’s more recent analysis provides additional context. It calculated that schools lost an average of about 15 school days per year to calamity-related suspensions during school years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, although losses varied dramatically between school divisions.
For example, Negros Occidental lost as many as 71 school days in a division affected by the prolonged Kanlaon Volcano eruption, while Canlaon City lost 61 days, according to EDCOM II. In Metro Manila, divisions averaged about 15 lost days, driven largely by monsoon rains and typhoons.
DepEd is already moving toward a more localized system
Importantly, Gatchalian’s proposal comes as the Department of Education is already shifting toward more granular class-suspension decisions.
DepEd issued Department Order No. 14, series of 2026, authorizing school heads to coordinate with Schools Division Superintendents and local governments to implement more targeted suspensions based on actual conditions in their communities.
The department is also preparing a proposed Executive Order to modernize the national framework under Executive Order No. 66, series of 2012.
The proposed system would have three levels:
- Automatic suspensions based on national technical thresholds;
- Localized suspensions determined by local chief executives; and
- Granular school-level suspensions and resumptions based on conditions at individual schools.
That means the policy debate is increasingly shifting away from the traditional question of simply “May pasok ba?” toward a more precise question:
Which schools actually need to suspend classes?
The list of hazards is also expanding
The proposed DepEd framework would go beyond the traditional focus on typhoons.
It would cover hazards including:
- Heavy rainfall
- Flooding
- Earthquakes
- Storm surges
- Poor air quality
- Volcanic smog
- Other volcanic hazards
- Extreme heat reaching a heat index of 40°C or higher
The objective is to make suspension and resumption decisions more responsive to actual risks rather than relying solely on broad geographic areas.
Recent disruptions show why the issue matters
The proposal comes after several rounds of weather-related disruptions across the country.
On Sept. 4, Malacañang ordered alternative learning modes and learning-continuity measures in Metro Manila and 15 provinces because of expected heavy rainfall from the enhanced Southwest Monsoon and poor air quality linked to haze from forest and peatland fires in Indonesia.
A week later, another presidential memorandum ordered alternative work and learning arrangements in Metro Manila and 13 provinces because of persistent rains and their cumulative effects. Local chief executives were also allowed to order localized class suspensions where necessary.
These measures illustrate the growing need for a system that can distinguish between areas facing serious hazards and those where schools can safely continue operating.
But localized suspension alone will not solve learning loss
Education experts caution that simply keeping more schools open is not enough.
EDCOM II has argued that any granular suspension system must be accompanied by strong learning-continuity measures.
One major obstacle is unequal access to technology.
EDCOM II reported that only 37% of teachers had laptops and just 17% of students had the gadgets needed for online learning, based on DepEd data submitted in October 2024. That makes simply shifting every suspended class online unrealistic.
Instead, schools may need a combination of printed learning materials, modules, home-based instruction and other delivery methods depending on local circumstances.
EDCOM II also recommended that schools prepare annual learning-continuity plans before the school year begins so they know in advance how instruction will continue when disasters force face-to-face classes to stop.
The bigger education crisis
The debate is happening against a much larger learning crisis.
EDCOM II reported that by the end of school year 2025-2026, at least one in two students was still not reading at their grade level. That makes every avoidable interruption potentially more consequential, particularly for students already struggling with foundational literacy.
This is why proponents of localized suspensions argue that safety and learning continuity should not automatically be treated as competing goals.
The goal is to suspend classes where conditions are genuinely unsafe while allowing safe schools to continue teaching.
What could change for parents and students?
If the localized approach is fully implemented, parents could see a future in which a class suspension is no longer automatically applied to an entire province, city or school division.
Instead, decisions could increasingly depend on the specific conditions surrounding a school.
A school that is flooded, inaccessible or unsafe could suspend classes.
Another school only a few kilometers away that remains safe could continue operating.
That could reduce unnecessary interruptions while preserving the government’s fundamental obligation to protect students and teachers.
But the transition will require clear rules, reliable weather and hazard information, fast communication and coordination among DepEd, local governments, school heads and disaster-response agencies.
The question now is implementation
Gatchalian’s push is part of a broader movement toward granular and localized class suspensions, rather than a completely new concept being introduced from scratch.
The Senate bill remains pending, while DepEd has already adopted 2026 guidelines allowing more site-specific decisions and is preparing a proposed executive order to further modernize the national system.
The challenge will be making the system work quickly and consistently when a typhoon, flood, earthquake, extreme heat event or other hazard strikes.
Because for Filipino students, the cost of one missed school day may seem small.
But when those days accumulate into weeks—or even months—the consequences can follow a child for years.
And that is the problem Gatchalian and education policymakers are now trying to solve: how to keep students safe without unnecessarily keeping them out of the classroom.
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