Such events as closure of school due to climatic reasons are widespread and common and after the schools are opened, many students do not reclaim their seats. According to the World Bank’s report, Choosing Our Future: Education for Climate Action, the floods of 2022 in Pakistan affected the learning of approximately 3. 5 million children, more than 1 million of which are currently at risk of not returning to school at all. All these effects were worst felt among the children in low-income and less education-earning households.
It indicates schools’ disruption for a longer time that 92% of the affected households still remain unsure about the reopening of the local schools even after six months of the floods. As the survey showed, during the period from January 2022 to June 2024 Pakistani students lost 97 days of schooling, that is, almost 54% of the year on average, and therefore suffered from a huge loss in the learning process.
The report also said that the impacts of climate-induced school closures are not limited to the loss of instructional days. It results in permanent dropouts since some children don’t go back to school once it reopens.
Further, the report also emphasized on aspect that education needs to play an important part in reducing the effects of climate change in affected communities. For instance, crop diversification, time shift planting, and insurance policy use which are means to address climate impacts were used more often by farmers with lower secondary and above education levels in Pakistan.
Education also plays a role in innovativeness and also in times of hardship. Other studies have also postulated that education systems that are strong in equity and quality will prepare the country for innovation. According to the present study regarding women, higher education levels are also reciprocation with optimum health prospects of children exposed to polluted air and high temperatures.
Previously, after the floods in 2022, as much as 97% of Pakistan’s parents demanded climate change lessons for schools, while 98% of the education policymakers across 33 low & middle-income countries. This overwhelming support is why climate change education has to be included in the curriculum to equip future generations with resilience.