Karachi:
In South Asia, the climate crisis has made monsoons more ferocious, heat waves more severe and floods more relentless – transforming nature’s wrath from a distant threat into an immediate reality that is reshaping landscapes, disrupting lives and deepens vulnerabilities across a wide range of human concerns, including education.
According to a recent UNICEF analysis, in 2024, almost half of the quarter-million students in 85 countries who faced climate-induced disruptions to their schooling were from this region, which now bears the weight of worsening environmental shocks. The impact on education, as documented by the UN agency, was staggering, with India topping the list at 54.78 million children facing academic disruptions, followed by 35.38 million in Bangladesh , 26.23 million in Pakistan and 10.91 million in Afghanistan. The region’s fragile education systems are collapsing under the weight of intensifying heatwaves, which have become the world’s biggest driver of school closures.
In total, climate events affected around 242 million students worldwide, from pre-primary to upper secondary education, with 128 million in South Asia, where most of the disruptions took place. UNICEF data reveals that more than 118 million students were affected by heatwaves in April alone, making it the peak month for climate-related school closures across India. Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. By May, temperatures in parts of South Asia had soared to 47 degrees Celsius, further exacerbating the crisis.
Common crisis
Despite the shared threat of climate change, South Asian countries have largely faced natural disasters in isolation, each grappling with the fallout independently. As extreme weather indiscriminately ravages the region, a fragmented response has deepened the vulnerabilities of those most affected. Heatwaves have dominated South Asia’s climate crises, but intermittent floods and storms have compounded the devastation, leaving countless schools inaccessible. In India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – countries where millions of children were already out of school – the situation was particularly dire. UNICEF warned of cascading consequences, noting that time lost in the classroom often leads to long-term setbacks for rural and underserved communities.
For Pakistan, a country on the front lines of the climate crisis, political instability may have shifted policymakers from tackling the pressing issue. “Addressing climate change effectively requires policy coherence and the allocation of funds needed for long-term mitigation and adaptation programs,” said Hassan Akbar, Pakistani fellow at the Wilson Center. Political instability in Pakistan, he warned, has diverted daily attention from existential challenges like climate change and disrupted policy continuity. “As South Asia faces extreme weather events as a common challenge, the lack of regional cooperation and action on climate change leaves the region less resilient,” Akbar added.
Ahead
In its analysis titled ‘Learning Interrupted: A Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions,’ the UN agency urged governments to prioritize building and retrofitting schools to withstand extreme weather, with upgrades such as improved ventilation, solar-powered cooling systems, and infrastructure Built to withstand floods and storms. He also recommended integrating climate change education into national curricula, enabling students to better understand and address future challenges. Additionally, the agency highlighted the need for robust data collection systems to track the impact of climate risks on education, arguing that such systems would help policymakers better understand and mitigate disruptions.
Asked about the region’s challenges, Akbar highlighted: “One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of data sharing, which hinders both early warning systems and long-term scientific research into evolution. of the region’s shared ecosystem.”
As the world grapples with the compound effects of climate change and educational disruption, Pia Rebello Britto, UNICEF’s global director for education and adolescent development, warned that tackling both simultaneously is crucial . Despite the bleak outlook, the UN agency stressed that solutions are within reach but need to be scaled up urgently.
