High Heat and Low Learning

Directly

As climate change spikes natural disasters across the globe, students are facing more absenteeism in school. Floods, wildfires, and hurricanes have all been contributing to declines in academic performance during the past few decades. Whether it is through destroying school buildings, learning materials, or infrastructure used to reach school (like roads and bridges), climate change is exacerbating inequalities in the education system.

For example, floods in Cambodia disrupted the lives of 1.7 million in October 2013. 155 schools in the area were closed for several weeks because of the floods, while others were also negatively affected. Over 400,000 students could not attend school, and tens of thousands of textbooks were ruined.

Indirectly

Along with the firsthand effects of flooding, floods also obliquely cause detriment to students’ academic careers. In rural areas, along with other regions whose economies rely on agricultural activity, flooding can disrupt the organization of crops and domestic animals. Subsequently, students often have to stay home from school to help support their families. In addition, having to relocate because of natural disasters also disturbs students’ educational routine of attending school regularly.

In addition, as air and water pollution skyrockets globally, children in areas disproportionately affected by climate change are more prone to disease. Water scarcity also makes food security and thereby the fulfillment of children’s nutritional needs more volatile, along with increasing the chance of exposure to food-related illnesses. Certain students are more vulnerable to these detriments, such as those of a lower socioeconomic status or members of an agriculture-based economy, worsening educational inequity. Inadequate education for girls and limitations to completing a 12-year academic curriculum can even toll countries $15-30 trillion annually.

Gender Inequality

The growing impacts of climate change are undoubtedly harming the global education system, but are especially increasing inequality for women and girls. In poorer parts of the globe, household responsibilities like supervising children and collecting water or firewood are often delegated to young women. To complete their tasks, they may stay home more frequently, lose crucial time to study, or even drop out of school.

Although climate change severely harms both girls’ and boys' academic progress, households in rural areas tend to manifest stricter traditional gender duties. While girls may be able to study and focus on academics fully in a normal setting, global warming makes them more involved in household management, which is frequently accompanied by lower attendance and performance in school. Even when temporary schooling services are used as an accommodation during climate crises, families are typically more resistant to allowing girls to attend than boys because of the fear that they will face harassment during the commute to a nonstandard location. During Kenya’s drought of 2013, the 61 interim schools primarily served boys’ education without necessarily assuring girls and their families of safety.

Potential Solutions

• Protecting Education from Climate Change:

  • One of the most crucial steps to ensure continuous academic services even during climate crises is by maintaining infrastructure resistant to environmental damage, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. In addition, implementing more complex emergency response maneuvers to quickly remobilize schools would allow students to still receive full-time education.

  • Along with managing the direct damages of climate change, climate education should also be enforced more heavily in schools. Doing so would allow students to a) better know how to protect themselves and others in climate crises, b) have a voice in climate planning and management, and c) know how to develop more climate-resilient systems as the next generation of leaders.

• Social Improvement Schemes:

  • Building programs designed specifically for disadvantaged and low-income communities can lower the inequalities resulting from climate disasters. Addressing how vulnerable populations deal with global warming, particularly young children and women, can better assure that they are not deprived of the necessary resources to continue their lifestyle, such as academic capital.

• Education Without Gender Bias:

  • Advocating for equality in education for boys and girls serves as an alternative tool to tackling the climate crisis. A full 12-year education provides students with a myriad of skills, including critical thinking, numerical proficiency, and literacy. When girls receive the same academic benefits, they are more likely to resist trauma associated with climate change and better understand information and data about the environment.

  • Full education for girls also equips them with stronger leadership and advocacy abilities. For example, the involvement of women leaders in environmental issues in India and Nepal is connected to better forest health in Asia. Along with this, mortality from disasters in 130 nations could go down by 60% if women were provided with at least a middle school education. Girls’ schooling can also increase countries’ resistance to climate change by nearly three ND-GAIN Index points.

The multitude of solutions for educational discrepancies resulting from climate change can ensure academic equality and better develop the next generation of individuals to lead the globe in tackling the climate crisis.

Works Cited

CARE International. “CAMBODIA CARE Supporting Flood Affected Families.” CARE International, 24 Oct. 2013, www.care-international.org/stories/cambodia-care-supporting-flood-affected-families.

Malala Fund. “Malala Fund Publishes Report on Climate Change and Girls’ Education.” Malala Fund, 2 Mar. 2021, malala.org/newsroom/malala-fund-publishes-report-on-climate-change-and-girls-education.

Porter, Catherine. “Education Is under Threat from Climate Change - Especially for Women.” University of Oxford, 8 Nov. 2021, www.ox.ac.uk/news/features/education-under-threat-climate-change-especially-women-and-girls.

UNICEF. “Education Systems: A Victim and a Key to the Climate Crisis.” UNICEF East Asia and Pacific, 9 Mar. 2020, www.unicef.org/eap/stories/education-systems-victim-and-key-climate-crisis.

---. “It Is Getting Hot: Call for Education Systems to Respond to the Climate Crisis.” UNICEF, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, 2019, www.unicef.org/eap/media/4596/file/It%20is%20getting%20hot:%20Call%20for%20education%20systems%20to%20respond%20to%20the%20climate%20crisis.pdf.