ARCHIVE - A boy plays with an inflatable rubber tube in a flooded street in Biyagama, a suburb of Colombo. Schools were closed in Sri Lanka on Monday (03.06.2024) as heavy rains triggered flooding and mudslides in many parts of the island nation, killing at least ten people and leaving six others missing, authorities said. Photo: Eranga Jayawardena/AP/dpa
Keystone
Climate change also threatens school education: Due to heatwaves, hurricanes, floods and droughts, lessons were canceled for around 242 million pupils in 85 countries last year, according to Unicef.
Keystone-SDA
24.01.2025, 04:05
SDA
The United Nations Children's Fund published a corresponding analysis in New York to mark International Education Day this Friday. It examined the impact of "extreme climate events" on school closures and significant interruptions to school operations. According to the study, heatwaves were a particularly great danger.
According to the study, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan and the Philippines suffered the most from "climate-related school disruptions". According to the study, almost 74 percent of the affected pupils lived in low- and lower-middle-income countries, but no region was spared.
According to the analysis, South Asia was the worst affected region with 128 million students. In East Asia and the Pacific, 50 million pupils were affected in their schooling. The climate phenomenon El Niño also had a devastating impact on Africa - with frequent heavy rainfall and flooding in East Africa and severe droughts in parts of Southern Africa, the report continued.
Torrential rain and flooding also hit Italy in September, with more than 900,000 schoolchildren unable to attend classes. In Spain, lessons were also canceled in October due to flooding for 13,000 children and young people, according to the report. Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell said that last year one in seven pupils had to miss school due to storms.
According to Unicef, prolonged school closures - especially in poorer regions - make it less likely that pupils will return to school and increase the risk of child marriage and child labor. It has been proven that girls are also at an increased risk of dropping out of school or becoming victims of gender-based violence during and after disasters.