Typhoons, heat waves, floods: extreme weather events disrupted the schooling of 250 million children worldwide in 2024, one in seven children, UNICEF said on Thursday. The organization deplores an “neglected” impact of the climate crisis.
“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of crises linked to meteorological events, in particular to heat waves, storms, droughts and floods, which are more intense and more frequent” due to global warming, said the boss From the UN agency Catherine Russell in a press release.
“The organism of children is particularly vulnerable. Their temperature increases more quickly and descends more slowly than that of adults, because they sweat less effectively. Children cannot concentrate in classes that offer no respite from The stifling heat and they cannot go to school either if the road is underwater or if their establishment has been swept away by floods, “she insisted.
Closed classes, advanced holidays, delayed reopening, offbeat times or even destroyed schools, at least 242 million children from kindergarten to high school, a “prudent” estimate due in particular to data in data, in 85 countries, have undergone a Disturbance of their schooling last year due to climatic shocks, according to UNICEF data.
Heat and hyperthermia
Extreme heat was the main cause, with at least 171 million schoolchildren concerned, including 118 million in April 2024 only, notably in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Thailand or the Philippines. In this country, the surge in temperatures that run significant risks of hyperthermia to children, thousands of non -air -conditioned schools have for example been closed.
The month of September, which marks the start of the school year in a large number of countries, has also been very impacted, with a suspension of courses in 18 countries, especially due to the devastating Typhon Yagi in East Asia and the Pacific .
Southern Asia was the region most affected by these schooling interruptions linked to climatic shocks, with 128 million schoolchildren concerned. By country, India comes first (54 million students due to heat waves), in front of Bangladesh (35 million, for the same reason).
And these figures may climb in the coming years if the world is not enough to slow down warming. Half of children worldwide, about a billion, live in very high risk countries of climatic and environmental shock.
-Risk of dropout
And if the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions continues, approximately 8 times more children should be exposed to heat waves in 2050 compared to 2000, 3.1 times more for extreme floods or 1.7 time more for fires, according to Unicef projections.
Beyond the temporary impact, the agency is concerned that prolonged suspensions of the prices increase the risks of a complete dropout of certain children, especially girls.
“Climate change aggravates the global learning crisis and threatens the ability of children to learn. Today, according to estimates, two-thirds of 10-year-old children around the world cannot read and understand” a text Simple, insists the report. “Climate risks worsen this reality”.
“Education is one of the services most frequently disturbed by climatic vagaries. However, this is an area often neglected in discussions despite its role in the preparation of children to adapt to climate change,” deplored Catherine Russell.
“The future of children must be at the heart of all climate plans and actions,” she said. UNICEF calls to invest in particular to renovate classrooms or build new ones more resistant to these hazards.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ATS / AFP
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