Extreme weather disrupted the schooling of about 242 million children in 85 countries last year -- roughly one in seven students, the UN children's agency reported Thursday, deploring an "overlooked" aspect of the climate crisis. Heat waves had the biggest impact, the report showed, as UNICEF's executive director Catherine Russell warned children are "more vulnerable" to extreme weather. "They heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults," she said in a statement.
"Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded, or if schools are washed away." Human activity, including the unrestricted burning of fossil fuels over decades, has warmed the planet and changed weather patterns. Global average temperatures hit record highs in 2024, and over the past few years they temporarily surpassed a critical 1.
5 degrees Celsius warming threshold for the first time. That has left the wet periods wetter and the dry periods dryer, intensifying heat and storms and making populations more vulnerable to disasters. The 242 million figure is a "conservative estimate," the UNICEF report said, citing gaps in the data.
Students from kindergarten to high school saw classes suspended, vacations moved, reopenings delayed, timetables shifted and even schools damaged or destroyed over the year due to climatic shocks, the available data showed. At least 171 million children were af.
