First Day of School, Then a 7.8 Quake: What OFW Parents Need to Know

Public schools opened School Year 2026-2027 on Monday, 8 June. At 7:37 that same morning, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani, turning the first day of classes into an evacuation drill across much of southern Mindanao.

President Marcos ordered classes suspended at all levels in affected areas until further notice. The Department of Education counts around four million learners affected, and by Tuesday its inspectors had tallied close to 200 classrooms destroyed, with assessments still running.

For OFW parents in Singapore, the distance makes the first week of school feel longer than usual. Here is how to stay on top of it.

If your children are in the quake zone

Class suspensions in General Santos, Sarangani, South Cotabato, and nearby provinces run until DepEd and the local government clear each school as safe. Engineers inspect buildings before students return; where classrooms are damaged, DepEd has said it will fund repairs and put up makeshift classrooms.

Suspended classes do not mean a lost school year. DepEd shifts affected schools to alternative delivery, the module and blended setups the pandemic normalised, while buildings get fixed.

Where to check, and where not to

Follow the official Facebook pages of your child's DepEd schools division and the city or municipal LGU. Walang-pasok announcements come from those two sources. Forwarded screenshots in group chats run a day late and get the details wrong; a screenshot with no page name attached is not an announcement, it is a rumour.

Ask your child's school for its official channel, in most cases a Facebook page or a group the adviser runs, and get your kasambahay or the lolos at home added to it.

Outside the quake zone

Classes proceed on the normal calendar everywhere else. The standing reminders for long-distance parenting at the start of any school year still apply: confirm enrolment went through, settle the school's official payment channels early, and set up a fixed weekly call slot that survives your duty roster.

The bigger picture

The quake itself has taken dozens of lives, and relief operations are still scaling up across the region. Our day-three update carries the latest numbers, and our guide on how Filipinos in Singapore can help covers reaching family and donating through channels that account for the money.

Figures on suspensions and damage move by the day; DepEd's official statements and the NDRRMC bulletins are the sources to trust over any article, including this one.

The first week of school always asks parents abroad for patience. This year it asks for a little more, plus a working list of official pages and the discipline to ignore everything else.

Hero image: "Philippine School Dedicated As Part of Phiblex '11 DVIDS330684.jpg" by Gunnery Sgt. J. L. Wright Jr., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.