4Ps Party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan stressed the need to return to the old school calendar to protect students from the punishing heat during the dry season.

“We are all for the immediate return to the old school calendar with the least possible disruption to classes,” Libanan said.

“Many children from poor households, including 4Ps beneficiaries in the provinces, tend to walk long distances going to or coming from school. The prolonged physical exertion, combined with the agonizing heat, puts them at risk of heat exhaustion,” he said.

In the revised school calendar, students attend classes during the hot season, which in the past was their vacation period.

Earlier, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the government is studying the return to the pre-pandemic school calendar as the unbearable summer heat tends to make learning difficult.

In the current school year, 203 days of classes started on Aug. 22, 2022 and will end on July 7, 2023, thus putting children in school during the hottest summer months of April and May.