Children exposed to heat wave worldwide may lose up to 1.5 years of schooling: Report

Time of India

20-07-2025

Children exposed early to extreme heat may lose up to 1.5 years of schooling with climate change having a direct impact on education and threatening to undo educational gains of recent decades, according to a new global report.
Climate related stressors such as heat, wildfires, storms, floods, droughts, diseases and rising sea levels, affect education outcomes. Most low and middle-income countries are experiencing climate-related school closures every year, increasing chances of learning loss and dropout, it noted.
Explore courses from Top Institutes in
Select a Course Category
MBA
Project Management
Data Science
Management
Operations Management
MCA
Leadership
CXO
Product Management
healthcare
Healthcare
Design Thinking
Cybersecurity
Data Science
Technology
Data Analytics
PGDM
Digital Marketing
Degree
Finance
others
Others
Artificial Intelligence
Public Policy
Skills you'll gain:
Financial Management
Team Leadership & Collaboration
Financial Reporting & Analysis
Advocacy Strategies for Leadership
Duration:
18 Months
UMass Global
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Starts on
May 13, 2024
Get Details
Skills you'll gain:
Analytical Skills
Financial Literacy
Leadership and Management Skills
Strategic Thinking
Duration:
24 Months
Vellore Institute of Technology
VIT Online MBA
Starts on
Aug 14, 2024
Get Details
The report compiled by
UNESCO
's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team, Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) project and University of Saskatchewan in Canada has pointed out over that the past 20 years, schools were closed in at least 75 per cent of the extreme weather events, impacting five million people or more.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Indonesia: New Container Houses (Prices May Surprise You)
Container House | Search ads
Search Now
Undo
Exposure to heat has significant detrimental effects on children's educational outcomes. An analysis linking census and climate data in 29 countries between 1969 and 2012 showed that exposure to higher than average temperatures during the prenatal and early life period is associated with fewer years of schooling, especially in Southeast Asia.
"A child experiencing temperatures that are two standard deviations above average is predicted to attain 1.5 fewer years of schooling than children experiencing average temperatures. High temperatures reduced high-stakes test performance in China and led to reductions in both high school graduation and college entrance rates," the report said.
Live Events
"In the United States, without air conditioning, a school year hotter by 1 degrees Celsius reduced test scores by 1 pc. Very hot school days disproportionately impacted African American and Hispanic students, due to poor infrastructure conditions, accounting for roughly 5 per cent of the racial achievement gap," it added.
The report noted that about half of public school districts need to update or replace multiple heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
"In the most disadvantaged municipalities in Brazil, which were also amongst those most exposed to heat risk, students lost about 1 per cent of learning per year due to rising temperatures," it said.
The global report flagged that climate-induced education vulnerability is worse for marginalised populations. Of the 10 countries most affected by extreme weather events in 2019, eight were low- or lower-middle-income countries.
Of the 33 countries identified as bearing extremely high climate risks for children, where nearly 1 billion people live, 29 are also considered to be fragile states. In the United States, those with low income or without a secondary school certificate are 15 per cent more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in childhood asthma diagnoses due to climate-driven increases in particulate air pollution.
"School districts in the United States that received federal disaster recovery funds had higher proportions of students from socially vulnerable groups," the report said.
The team flagged that increasingly frequent natural disasters, including floods and cyclones, have led to the deaths of students and teachers and have damaged and destroyed schools.
"Following the 2013 floods in Jakarta, access to schools was disrupted, schools were used as emergency shelters and some schools closed because of damage. Among schools surveyed, 81 per cent of those with disaster management plans and a standard operating procedure for dealing with flood emergencies agreed that these were effective in times of crisis," it said.