20/08/2026
| AUGUST IS THE GHOST MONTH, BUT WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THERE WOULD BE GHOSTED LEARNING?
August may have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. It has been grumpy, bringing heavy rains and floods through consecutive typhoons that aggravated the southwest monsoon. The National Capital Region and nearby provinces, including Batangas, bore the brunt of suspended classes and shifts to alternative modes of both learning and working.
There have been complaints, particularly from students, about late declarations of class suspensions putting their safety at risk. But after almost half of the month was spent on remote and modular learning, students are now pushing back against endless class suspensions and constant shifts to alternative delivery modes. It is one thing to consider student safety, but quite another to actually deliver on it without compromising education.
However, the problem is not about students or schools declaring the suspension of classes. The bigger problem lies in the non-acknowledgment of the repercussions of climate change, the lack of plans to address and mitigate its effects, and the absence of mechanisms to adapt to these extreme conditions.
Ever since the pandemic, the government has overused alternative delivery modes as a permanent coping mechanismโallowing local and national leadership to avoid tackling the real issues of inadequate urban drainage, vulnerable public school infrastructure, and systemic climate adaptation policies.
They likewise fail to see how frequent, sudden shifts between face-to-face and remote learning disrupt pedagogical continuity. This causes student digital fatigue and self-learning isolation while teachers are burdened with rapidly reconfiguring lessons on short notice.
While alternative delivery modes are better than outright class cancellations, they still create learning gaps in the absence of active instruction. Without direct instruction, students face low retention, inequitable resource access, and self-directed workloads that neglect actual comprehension.
Class suspensions and shifts to alternative learning modes are band-aid solutions that merely hide deeper wounds.
Filipinos, especially our learners, are frequently praised for being resilient. But real resilience requires moving beyond short-term scheduling shifts toward proactive urban planning, climate-proof school infrastructure, and clear, standardized protocols for weather disruptions.
