Kashmiri Kids Deserve Climate-Ready Schools

As the Valley battles record heat, children return to classrooms unfit for learning or safety. The solution isn’t more holidays. It's urgent climate-ready school reform.

- Ikkz Ikbal

This summer in Kashmir has been punishing. The sun beats down without mercy, and the valley finds itself under a sky that offers no relief.

For days on end, the temperature has hovered near all-time highs, the kind of heat we've never seen in over a hundred years. While adults retreat indoors or adjust their routines, our school-going children are being packed into metal-roofed classrooms and school buses with broken fans. They’re expected to learn in what can only be described as dangerous conditions.

This isn’t an exaggeration. Classrooms in many schools, especially government ones, are built without even the most basic climate considerations.

Tin roofs trap the heat, turning classrooms into ovens. Ventilation is poor. In some places, there are no fans at all, or they barely function. There is no air conditioning, no insulation, no shade, Water isn’t always available, let alone chilled and clean.

School buses are no better. They're cramped, poorly ventilated, and scorching by the time the first child steps in. Sitting in them for even ten minutes is difficult for an adult, let alone a child.

The question that keeps coming up: should we extend the summer vacation? But that question is the wrong starting point. It’s a temporary fix for a permanent failure.