MANILA -- Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Monday said greater renewable energy use in the Philippines can help relieve students of the heat in classrooms.

Angara was responding to a question on what the Department of Education (DepEd) plans to do to address the learning gap, which might be worsened by classes being suspended because of the extreme heat.

"I think, because of climate change, we're in a period of transition," Angara said. "And I think part of the transition is using renewable energy. I've seen that schools with solar energy, using solar energy, are able to have air conditioning, which really helps, especially the computer rooms, and they have to cancel less."

"So I think that's a technology change, adoption of new technology that we need to push forward," he noted.

Soaring temperatures shut down schools in nearly half of Metro Manila last week as the dry season started in the Philippines.

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Asked if more days will be allotted for hybrid learning because of class suspensions due to the heat, Angara said, "We'd like to see that, actually, especially in the higher years."

"Because it's proven to work in certain countries, I think, as long as it's done right and the value of the teacher-student interaction is not lost somehow," he explained.

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