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Last year, at least 242 million children in 85 countries experienced disruptions in their education caused by heatwaves, cyclones, flooding, and other severe weather events, according to a new UNICEF report released on Friday.
The United Nations Children’s Fund stated that this equates to one in seven children worldwide missing school at some point in 2024 due to climate-related disasters.
The report highlighted that some countries faced widespread destruction of schools, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa particularly affected.
However, extreme weather events were not limited to these regions. In Italy, torrential rains and floods at the end of the year forced over 900,000 children to miss school, while catastrophic flooding in Spain interrupted classes for thousands of students.
In addition to southern Europe, Asia and Africa experienced severe flooding and cyclones, but heatwaves were identified as “the predominant climate hazard” impacting schools last year, with 2024 marking the hottest year on record.
In April alone, over 118 million children had their schooling disrupted, as vast areas of the Middle East and Asia, from Gaza to the Philippines, were hit by prolonged heatwaves, with temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F).
“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts, and flooding,” said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell. “Children’s bodies heat up faster, sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults. They cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no relief from the heat, and they cannot reach school if paths are flooded or if schools have been destroyed.”
Approximately 74% of the affected children were in middle- and low-income countries, underscoring the disproportionate impact of climate extremes on the world’s poorest nations. In April, flooding wiped out over 400 schools in Pakistan, while Afghanistan saw a combination of heatwaves and severe flooding that destroyed more than 110 schools in May.
In southern Africa, drought conditions worsened by the El Niño phenomenon posed significant threats to education, further jeopardizing the future of millions of children.
The extreme weather crises show no signs of slowing down. In December, Cyclone Chido devastated the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, leaving children out of school for six weeks. The region was then hit by Tropical Storm Dikeledi in January. Cyclone Chido also destroyed over 330 schools and three regional education offices in Mozambique, where access to education is already a major challenge.
UNICEF stated that the world’s education systems are “largely ill-equipped” to handle the effects of extreme weather.
As per News
