THE NATIONAL Youth Commission urged the government to implement a mandatory mental health break for students in the coming school year.

“[W]e are proposing a mandatory mental health break to all schools for the next school year, that it will be adopted not just by the public schools but also by the private schools,” NYC Commissioner Alexa Dayanghirang said during the House appropriations committee hearing on the 2022 budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The group said that the break will help the students cope with distance learning.

“In this span of one week, the students would be able to reboot their system and realize that this Covid19 pandemic is just a phase and their life goes on,” she added.

The opening of classes for public schools will be on September 13.

The Department of Education said that so far, 19 million learners have enrolled for SY 2021-2022.