A new report from UNICEF reveals a disturbing trend at least one in seven students globally had their schooling disrupted due to climate-related hazards in 2024. The report, Learning Interrupted: Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions in 2024, released on January 24, 2025, on the International Day of Education, sheds light on the scale of climate’s impact on children’s education worldwide.
According to the report, a staggering 242 million students, ranging from pre-primary to upper secondary education, experienced disruptions to their schooling in 2024 due to climate events. This figure is likely an underestimation, as the report acknowledged data limitations.
The analysis examined disruptions across 85 countries from January to December 2024, identifying 119 different climate hazards that impacted schooling. These disruptions ranged from school closures to changes in timetables, delayed reopenings, or even destruction of school buildings and classrooms caused by climate events.
Among the various climate hazards, heat waves were the leading cause of disruptions, affecting at least 171 million students globally. In April alone, more than 118 million students were impacted, particularly in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, and the Philippines. The East Asia and Pacific region saw widespread school closures due to heat waves, with countries like Malaysia and Thailand also facing significant disruptions, though specific data remains unavailable.
Tropical cyclones and storms also contributed to the chaos, affecting 18 million students in September and continuing to cause damage throughout the rest of the year. Floods, storms, and droughts linked to El Niño also played a significant role, with Southern Africa enduring the worst drought in over a century, severely impacting 1.8 million children in Zimbabwe.
The report highlighted significant regional variations in climate-related disruptions. South Asia, the most affected region in 2024, saw a total of 127.8 million students impacted by climate hazards, primarily heat waves. In India alone, 54 million students faced school disruptions, with Bangladesh also hit hard, affecting 35 million students.
In East Asia and the Pacific, 50 million students experienced disruptions, with heat waves as the primary cause. Latin America and the Caribbean were also heavily impacted by a mix of heat waves, floods, storms, and cyclones, affecting 30 million students. Meanwhile, the Middle East and North Africa faced disruptions due to storms and floods, affecting over eight million students, and West and Central Africa, along with Eastern and Southern Africa, experienced flood-related disruptions, impacting millions.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell emphasized that children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate-related disasters. “Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heat waves, storms, droughts, and flooding,” she said.
Alarmingly, nearly half the world’s children approximately 1 billion live in countries with extremely high risks of climate and environmental shocks, underscoring the urgent need for global action to address the climate crisis and protect children’s education from further disruption.
As the frequency and severity of climate events continue to rise, the impact on education could deepen, leaving generations of students at risk.