Learning gaps may widen as extreme heat closes schools

Kids could fall ill in hot classrooms but they lag behind in studies if forced to stay home

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DHAKA - Hena Khan, a grade nine student in Dhaka, has struggled to focus on her studies this week as temperatures surpassed 40 deg C in the Bangladeshi capital.

"There is no real education in schools in this punishing heat," she said. "Teachers can't teach, students can't concentrate. Rather, our lives are at risk." Hena is one of more than 40 million students who have been shut out of classrooms in recent weeks as heatwaves have forced school closures in many parts of Asia and North Africa.

As the climate warms due to the burning of fossil fuels, heatwaves are lasting longer and reaching greater peaks as average temperatures rise. In turn, government authorities and public health experts across the world are grappling with whether to keep students learning in hot classrooms, or encourage them to stay home and keep cool.

Either decision has consequences. About 17 per cent of the world's school-aged children are already out of school, according to United Nations data, but the proportion is larger in developing countries, with nearly a third of sub-Saharan Africa's children out of school against with just 3 per cent in North America. Children's test scores in the developing world also lag far behind those in developed countries.

Heat could make that worse, widening learning gaps between tropical developing nations and developed countries, experts said, and even between rich and poor districts in wealthy countries. But sending children to overheated schools could make them sick.

South Sudan already in 2024 shuttered its schools to some 2.2 million students in late March when temperatures soared to 45 deg C. Thousands of schools in the Philippines and in India followed suit in late April.