Climate crises disrupted education for 3.3cr Bangladesh children in 2024: Unicef

Severe weather events disrupted education for children around the world, including 3.3 crore children in Bangladesh in 2024, according to an analysis released by Unicef yesterday.

The report, "Learning Interrupted: Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions in 2024," is the first of its kind, and reveals that heatwaves, cyclones, floods, and other extreme weather events led to multiple rounds of school closures around the world.

Globally, at least 247 million students in 77 countries had their schooling disrupted by heatwaves, tropical storms, floods and droughts in 2024. South Asia was the most affected region, read a press release.

In Bangladesh, nationwide heatwaves in April and May 2024 left children at risk of dehydration and heatstroke, forcing schools to close across the whole country for up to two weeks, and several districts went on to suffer subsequent school disruption due to cyclone Remal, followed by intense flooding in June. Up to 1.84 crore people were impacted by the floods countrywide, including 70 lakh children.

Sylhet district was the worst hit, with severe flooding causing widespread infrastructure damage and leaving more than 6,00,000 learners without access to education, reports the analysis.

According to estimates from Unicef in Bangladesh, children in Sylhet lost up to 8 weeks of school days cumulatively and areas in Khulna, Chattogram and Rangpur districts each suffered 6 weeks of climate-induced school closures over 12 months.

"The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, exacerbated by the climate crisis, is having a knock-on effect on children's education in Bangladesh and depriving children of their right to learn," said Rana Flowers, Unicef representative to Bangladesh. 

"Extreme temperatures and other climate hazards don't only damage schools, they can affect students' concentration, memory and mental and physical health. Prolonged school closures increase the chance of children – especially adolescent girls – dropping out of school and being married off by families to cope with economic stress," she added.

According to the Unicef Children's Climate Risk Index, children in Bangladesh are already among the most exposed and vulnerable in the world to climate and environmental hazards. These disasters often put further strains on the "learning poverty" in the country, where one in two children cannot read at their grade level and two-thirds are unable to do basic counting after completing primary education.

In addition, the country loses some of the brightest from their classrooms, as girls and Bangladesh pay the price of ranking among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest percentage of child marriage.

The report notes that schools and education systems are largely ill-equipped to protect students from these impacts, and climate-centred finance investments in education remain strikingly low.

Unicef is calling on international climate financing institutions and donors, the private sector and the interim government of Bangladesh to prioritise the needs of children in policies and plans, including:

Accelerating financing to improve climate resilience in the education sector, including investing in proven and promising solutions to build climate-smart learning facilities that are safe and inclusive for all children.

Ensuring national climate plans – including Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0 and the National Adaptation Plan – strengthen child-critical social services, such as education, to be more climate-smart and disaster-resilient, and contain adequate emission reduction pledges to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Ensuring children and young people are part of the climate decision-making process at all levels