How Extreme Heat Is Threatening Education Progress Worldwide

The continued burning of fossil fuels is closing schools around the world for days, sometimes weeks at a time, and threatening to undermine one of the greatest global gains of recent decades: children’s education.

It’s a glimpse into one of the starkest divides of climate change. Children today are living through many more abnormally hot days in their lifetimes than their grandparents, according to data released Wednesday by Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Consider the scale of some recent school closures.

Pakistan closed schools for half its students, that’s 26 million children, for a full week in May, when temperatures were projected to soar to more than 40 degrees Celsius. Bangladesh shuttered schools for half its students during an April heat wave, affecting 33 million children. So too South Sudan in April. The Philippines ordered school closures for two days, when heat reached what the country’s meteorological department called “danger” levels.

And in the United States, heat days prompted school closures or early dismissal in districts from Massachusetts to Colorado in recent school years. They still represent a small share of total school days, though one recent estimate suggests that the numbers are increasing quickly, from about three days a year a few years ago to double that number now, with many more expected by midcentury.

In short, heat waves, exacerbated by the accumulation of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, are making it harder to learn. Even if schools are open, extremely high temperatures, especially over several hours, affects learning outcomes, including test scores, research shows.

“We are deeply concerned that the number of extreme heat days is going to indirectly lead to learning loss,” Lily Caprani, chief of advocacy for Unicef, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.