According to a new report, climate change has a direct impact on education. A report by the Global Education Monitoring Report of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has highlighted the long-term impact caused as a result of climate shocks experienced during the early childhood years.
The paper, which is part of a series aimed at fostering dialogue on education and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has raised concerns regarding the lasting damage that extreme weather events can cause on development of a child. The paper, published in partnership with the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE Project), focused on climate change. According to Education and climate change: Learning to act for people and planet, climate related stressors, such as heat, wildfires, storms, floods, droughts, diseases and rising sea levels, affect education outcomes.
Effects on Cognitive Ability of Children
The report has emphasised upon the vulnerability of young children. Their dependence on adults and developing bodies make them more vulnerable to the immediate physical hazards of floods, droughts, and heatwaves. However, apart from he physical impact, they are also affected severely in terms of their emotional well-being and cognitive thinking thus directly causing a significant impact on their education.
The study showed that children in Ecuador who were exposed to severe El Nino floods while still in uterus were shorter and performed worse on cognitive tests five to seven years later. A study of rainfall shocks in the uterus during the first 15 years of life in India discovered that they had a negative impact on vocabulary at age 5, as well as mathematics and non-cognitive abilities at age 15.
An analysis of disasters experienced early in life by over 140,000 children in seven Asian countries discovered a negative relationship between school enrollment, particularly for boys, and mathematics performance, particularly for girls, by the age of 13 to 14.
Most low and middle-income countries are experiencing climate-related school closures every year, increasing chances of learning loss and dropout, the report stated.
At least 75 per cent of extreme weather events have resulted in school closures over the last 20 years.
Destruction of Education Infrastructure
It has been observed that natural disasters, such as floods and cyclones, are becoming more common, causing deaths of students and teachers and significant damage and destruction to schools.
After the floods in Jakarta in 2013, access to schools was disrupted. Many schools were converted into emergency shelters, and some schools were closed due to damage.
Exposure to flood had caused loss of household incomes, leading to reduced number of completed grades among 12- to 15-year-olds in Ethiopia (3.4 per cent), India (3.8 per cent) and Vietnam (1.8 per cent).
Cyclone Idai had destroyed 3,400 classrooms in Mozambique in 2019, denying 305,000 children access to education.
Tropical Cyclone Gita had damaged 72 per cent of Tonga’s schools in 2018.
Impact of Heat
According to the report, heat has a significant negative impact on children’s educational outcomes. An analysis of census and climate data from 29 countries between 1969 and 2012 found that exposure to higher-than-average temperatures during prenatal and early life is associated with fewer years of schooling, particularly in Southeast Asia.
High temperatures reduced high-stakes test performance in China, resulting in lower high school graduation and college entrance rates.
Rain variability can also have a negative impact on educational outcomes. According to a study of the 2010 flood’s impact on educational outcomes in Pakistan, children and adolescents in flooded districts were 4 per cent less likely to attend school than peers in non-flooded districts.
Drought reduced children’s mathematics and reading scores in rural Maharashtra, India by 4.1 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.
The report emphasised the importance of including climate change education in school curricula. This integration should not only provide climate science knowledge, but also skills in resilience, adaptation and sustainable development.
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