(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines suspended in-person classes in some cities across the country on Tuesday as rising temperatures prompted the government to revive remote learning alternatives.

Over a dozen cities and municipalities in the Southeast Asian nation have shut schools and advised students to study remotely for the day, ABS-CBN News reported, when the temperature is forecast to increase to up to 35C (95F). The country’s public schools are typically packed and have poor ventilation. 

The local weather bureau sees the heat index - which combines air temperature and humidity - to climb to as much as 44C on Tuesday and 43C on Wednesday. One province in the southern Mindanao island halted in-person classes through April 15.

The closure of some schools and the shift to remote classes due to the heat could hurt learning in a nation still reeling from the pandemic’s impact on students. An Asian Development Bank study in 2021 said many students in the region are constrained by access to resources like computers and Internet for remote learning, which risks affecting their future productivity.

In the capital Manila, the education department gave school heads the authority to suspend in-person classes and shift to asynchronous sessions, saying teachers and students could wear more comfortable clothing to mitigate the heat, according to a memorandum dated April 1.

The Philippines’ weather agency had warned in January that 2024 may be “one of the warmest years on record” for the country amid the El Nino phenomenon. The hottest year on record was in 1998 when the annual average temperature reached 28.3C.

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