A new policy brief from the World Bank outlines the most recent research on how climate change undermines educational performance, including rising school closures, and what may be done to address it.

Over the last 20 years, schools have been closed for 75 per cent or more of extreme weather events affecting five million or more people, reports WAM. 

It is currently common for a country to close its schools several times per year owing to heatwaves, flooding, high levels of pollution, and other factors. School closures are frequently extended when school infrastructure is compromised or schools are used as evacuation centres.

Students are also affected by climate change, which causes an increase in diseases, stress, and violence. A one-standard-deviation difference in temperature and rainfall has been associated with a 14 per cent increase in the incidence of intergroup conflict and interpersonal violence.

These issues have serious implications for children's educational performance and achievement.

Climate-related loss of learning and education attainment leads to decreased future incomes and productivity, particularly among the poor. According to research, each additional year of schooling increases earnings by 10 per cent. 

As climate shocks impair educational achievement, future earnings will likely suffer, perpetuating poverty cycles and limiting social mobility over generations.

Despite these expanding negative consequences, authorities do not seem to recognise the critical need for climate adaptation in the education sector.

According to a new study of 94 education policymakers from 28 low- and middle-income nations, roughly 61 per cent believe that protecting learning from climate change is one of their country's bottom three priorities (out of ten). This low priority for adaptation is concerning since the benefits of schooling are at risk.

To make education systems more resilient, authorities must address four issues: 

- Education administration

- School infrastructure

- Students and teachers as change agents

- Maintaining learning continuity

Looking at simply the damage caused by tropical storms, global estimates show that the education industry loses $4 billion each year. Typhoons and floods cause damage to over 10,000 classrooms in the Philippines alone each year.

For the millions of children who will need to attend school over the next 50 years, climate mitigation will simply be too late. Governments must act immediately to strengthen educational institutions' capacity to adapt and cope with these increasingly common catastrophic weather occurrences.