Education at Risk: The Growing Impact of Climate Change on India’s Young Learners

As the temperatures rise across India, the onset of April has seen a flurry of urgent measures to protect school children. States like Odisha, Maharashtra, and Gujarat have shifted school timings to the early mornings, while Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have declared early summer vacations. These adjustments, while necessary, reveal a deeper crisis: climate change is not just an environmental issue — it is rapidly becoming an education emergency, deepening existing inequities among India’s children.

The impacts of the climate crisis on education are complex and far-reaching. Extreme heat leads to school closures, absenteeism, and even cognitive decline. Floods damage vital educational infrastructure, displacing thousands of students from their learning environments. Air pollution, particularly in cities like Delhi, forces schools to shut for weeks at a time during winter smog seasons. According to UNICEF, climate shocks disrupted schooling for at least 242 million children worldwide in 2024, with 128 million affected in South Asia alone. In India, heatwaves alone impacted 54.8 million students.

Climate Disasters Disrupt Learning Across India

India ranks 26th out of 163 countries in the UNICEF Children’s Climate Risk Index, highlighting its extreme vulnerability to climate-related disruptions. The evidence of this vulnerability is stark. In 2022, Karnataka’s floods alone damaged nearly 7,000 primary schools and anganwadi centres. Even after the waters receded, the path to recovery for many students remained blocked by the loss of textbooks, uniforms, school certificates, and family livelihoods. Some children were forced to abandon schooling altogether to help support their families financially.

The frequency and severity of such disruptions are set to increase dramatically. The World Bank projects that a child born in 2024 will experience double the number of wildfires and tropical storms, triple the number of river floods, four times the crop failures, and five times the droughts compared to a child born in 1970, if global temperatures rise by 3°C. The education system, already strained under existing inequities, is ill-prepared for these challenges.


Long-Term Risks to Educational Outcomes

Beyond immediate closures, climate change also subtly undermines everyday learning. During floods, the simple act of reaching school becomes a major hurdle, with students often having to travel longer, riskier routes. The rise in waterborne diseases further worsens attendance and learning outcomes. In rural and marginalized communities, these disruptions are even more pronounced, widening the education gap between privileged and vulnerable children.

The mental and emotional toll of constant climate shocks adds another layer to this crisis. Children forced to navigate unsafe environments and uncertain futures often experience heightened anxiety and trauma, further hindering their academic progress. For girls, the risks are even greater, with school dropouts increasing during climate-related disruptions due to safety concerns, early marriages, and the burden of household chores.

While individual states have taken temporary protective measures such as adjusting school timings or announcing early holidays, a comprehensive national strategy is urgently needed. Investments must be made to climate-proof school infrastructure, ensure access to digital learning alternatives during disruptions, and provide psychosocial support to affected students. Special attention must be paid to the most marginalized communities, where the combined weight of poverty and climate vulnerability threatens to create a lost generation of learners.

India’s children are at the frontline of the climate crisis, yet they are the least responsible for its causes. Protecting their right to education in the face of escalating climate shocks is not just a matter of policy — it is a moral imperative. The future resilience of India depends on the investments made today to ensure that every child, regardless of their circumstances, has the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive in a changing world.

References:

India’s Children At Risk: Climate Change Is Deepening Education Inequities – Analysis

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8dacb40a-cc6f-4fd8-97fe-96ab7e5793ae/content

https://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf

Banner Image: Photo by Yogendra Singh on Pexels

https://www.pexels.com/photo/photograph-of-girls-wearing-uniform-3231359

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Aayushi Gour
Aayushi Gour
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