Singapore schools relax rules on uniforms as Asia battles record sweltering temperatures
- Singapore’s education ministry says schools can explore ways to help students manage the heat, such as allowing pupils to wear physical education attire
- Temperature records continue to be shattered across Asia, with Vietnam’s Tuong Duong district hitting 44.2 degrees Celsius and Luang Prabang in Laos registering 43.5 degrees
At one primary school, pupils were told they did not have to wear their pinafore after a physical education (PE) class if they were feeling too hot, according to a report by broadcaster CNA.
At another, students were allowed to wear their PE attire instead of their full uniforms.
The education ministry said schools had guidelines to ensure the safety and well-being of students and staff during hot weather.
‘Extreme weather events’: Asia set for supercharged heat as El Nino looms
“Schools may also explore ways to help students better manage the heat, such as allowing students to dress in [PE] attire or their school T-shirt, depending on their specific needs,” the ministry said, adding that students had been encouraged to stay hydrated during and after physical activities.
The daily maximum temperature crossed 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit) for most of April in the city state, but hit its hottest day yet on April 14, with a daily maximum temperature of 36.1 degrees, said the Meteorological Service Singapore.
“May is normally one of the warmest months of the year. The first half of May 2023 is forecast to be warm and humid, with daily maximum temperatures reaching 34 degrees Celsius on most afternoons,” it said, adding that on less cloudy days, the daily maximum temperature could reach as high as 35 degrees.
The average daily maximum temperature, from 1991 to 2020, was 32.3 degrees, it said.
In response to queries, the met service last week said Singapore was “not currently experiencing a heatwave” despite having recorded relatively high temperatures recently.
“Singapore is more vulnerable to a heatwave occurrence when there is a strong El Niño event, which brings warmer temperatures to Singapore. These warmer than usual temperatures can occur in any season, but the warmest temperatures tend to occur when El Niño dissipates, typically in March to April the following year,” it added.
Record temperatures in Asia
For the past three years, an opposing weather phenomenon that generally lowers global temperatures slightly, called La Niña, has been in place, but climate scientists are now forecasting the return of El Niño in 2023 – and the hot, dry, fire-prone conditions it causes.
Japan’s weather bureau said on Friday that conditions were nearing for the El Niño phenomenon to form in the equatorial region of the Pacific, and that there was an 80 per cent chance that it would be seen by the northern hemisphere summer.
Already, meteorologists are sounding the alarm for what might be a sweltering summer charged with extreme heat events across Asia.
This comes after an 11-year-old boy died of heatstroke and dehydration, and five people were hospitalised last month amid high-temperature warnings across several districts.
‘Super El Nino’ threatens India’s monsoon rains, critical crops
Concerns about the increasing likelihood of dry weather and drought are also reverberating across the rest of the region, with authorities from Malaysia to the Philippines already starting to prepare for potential water shortages.
Thailand, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, has asked its farmers to grow only one crop this year – instead of the usual two – with El Niño likely to reduce rainfall, according to Bangkok Post.
Rice is highly water-intensive and is dependent on irrigation and enough precipitation. It is an early sign of how the disruptive weather pattern is threatening global food production. The resulting drop in rice output also has the potential to push up prices of a staple food for more than half the world’s population.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Bloomberg
