When Climate Change Closes the Classroom

Imagine a child in a coastal village preparing for school on a rainy morning. The school building is still standing, the books are on the shelves and the teacher is ready to teach. But the child cannot reach the classroom because floodwater has submerged the road.

Elsewhere, an extreme heatwave forces schools to close. In the haor region, seasonal flooding interrupts the academic calendar. In coastal communities, salinity threatens access to safe drinking water. After a cyclone or flood, a school may become an emergency shelter, leaving children without a place to learn.

These are no longer hypothetical scenarios. They are increasingly part of Bangladesh’s educational reality.

According to UNICEF, 35 million children in Bangladesh experienced climate-related disruption to their education in 2024. Heatwaves in April and May forced schools to close across the country for up to two weeks, while Cyclone Remal and subsequent flooding caused further disruption. In Sylhet, children lost up to eight weeks of schooling cumulatively, with prolonged disruption also reported in other regions.

The question is no longer whether climate change affects education. The question is whether Bangladesh’s education system is prepared for it.

Climate change is becoming an education issue

Bangladesh has earned international recognition for disaster preparedness and climate adaptation. Yet education has traditionally approached disasters mainly as temporary emergencies: schools close, damage is assessed, repairs are made and classes resume.

That approach is becoming inadequate.

Climate change affects education through multiple pathways. Floods damage classrooms and roads. Cyclones disrupt infrastructure and communication. Extreme heat can make classrooms unsafe. Salinity affects water security and health in coastal areas. Climate-related displacement can force children to leave their communities and schools. Loss of household income can increase absenteeism, child labour and dropout.

UNICEF reported that the floods of 2024 affected up to 18.4 million people across Bangladesh, including around seven million children. In severely affected Sylhet, more than 600,000 learners were left without access to education.

Education infrastructure is therefore much more than a school building. Roads, safe water, communications and teachers are all part of the system that makes learning possible.

The hidden cost: lost learning

The most visible consequence of a disaster is often physical damage. The less visible consequence is learning loss.

When a school closes for several weeks, students lose valuable instructional time. When schools reopen, teachers may have to accelerate lessons to complete the syllabus. Children from disadvantaged households may find it particularly difficult to catch up.

Research from Keshabpur in Jashore illustrates this problem. A study involving 80 school-going children found that 93.8 per cent experienced academic challenges during flooding, while about 82 per cent could not attend school because roads became impassable.

Rebuilding a damaged school is therefore only one part of the solution. We must also rebuild learning.

Coastal Bangladesh provides another warning

Climate vulnerability is particularly acute in the coastal belt.

Research published in Science of the Total Environment found that excessive drinking-water salinity in eight southwestern coastal districts reduced the probability of grade advancement among children aged 7–12 by 6.7 percentage points. The study also found that poverty intensified the adverse effect.

Climate-related educational disruption does not occur only when a school is closed. A child may lose educational opportunities because safe water becomes scarce, health deteriorates, household expenses increase or a family is forced to migrate.

Climate change is therefore also an education-equity issue.

The 2026 HSC experience: a warning we should not ignore

The 2026 HSC examinations provided a particularly important reminder.

On July 13, heavy rainfall caused severe waterlogging in several areas. In Cumilla, candidates faced serious difficulties reaching examination centres amid intense rain and waterlogging; reports described some students travelling through deep water and arriving at centres in wet clothes.

The situation also triggered demonstrations by HSC candidates in Dhaka and several districts. The Chattogram Education Board postponed examinations because of flooding and later suspended its remaining examinations after considering flood conditions, damaged roads, transport disruption and candidates’ safety and wellbeing. The government subsequently announced special arrangements for candidates who had been unable to sit examinations because of adverse weather.

This episode raises an important policy question: should examination policy consider only what happens inside the examination hall—or also whether candidates can safely reach it?

The journey to the examination centre is part of the examination experience. This does not mean examinations should be postponed whenever it rains. Rather, Bangladesh needs clear, transparent and pre-established climate-related examination protocols based on objective indicators such as rainfall, flooding, road accessibility, official weather warnings and local administrative assessments.

The 2026 HSC experience should become a policy lesson—not simply a controversy over examination schedules.

Bangladesh has already begun moving in the right direction

There are encouraging developments. In 2025, Bangladesh launched the Climate Smart Education Systems Initiative with UNESCO and partners. The initiative seeks to integrate climate adaptation and environmental sustainability into education policies, planning, budgets and school systems, including climate-risk analysis, infrastructure mapping, disaster-risk reduction, teacher development and education continuity.

Bangladesh has subsequently taken further steps towards assessing climate risks and institutional capacity within the education sector.

These initiatives provide an important foundation. But the next challenge is implementation at school, college and examination-centre level.

What should a climate-resilient school look like?

A climate-resilient school should not simply be a stronger concrete building. It should be an institution capable of anticipating, absorbing, responding to and recovering from climate shocks.

Every high-risk institution should have a School Climate Risk and Learning Continuity Plan.

Before a disaster, it should know which hazards threaten it, which students are most vulnerable, how parents will receive emergency information, how teachers will communicate and what learning materials will be available at home.

During a disaster, it should have options for printed learning materials, SMS and mobile communication, television or radio, safe community learning spaces and monitoring of vulnerable children.

After the disaster, it should assess instructional days lost, students who have fallen behind, dropout and the remedial support required.

These questions should become part of routine education planning.

We also need climate-smart teachers

Curriculum reform alone will not create climate-resilient education.

Teachers need professional development in climate-change education, disaster-risk reduction, emergency teaching, blended learning, psychosocial support, heat-health awareness, inclusive education and community-based adaptation.

Teachers should not merely teach students about climate change. They should also be prepared to teach during climate disruption.

Climate education must move from awareness to action

Students should not simply memorise definitions of climate change for examinations. They should learn how to understand early-warning messages, prepare for floods and cyclones, respond to extreme heat, protect drinking water, identify local climate risks and participate in community adaptation.

Climate education must move from awareness to action. The school of the future should become not only a place of learning but also a centre of climate knowledge, preparedness and community resilience.

Seven priorities for Bangladesh

Bangladesh needs an integrated Climate-Resilient Education Framework based on seven priorities:

1. Climate-risk mapping of every school, college and examination centre.
2. Climate-resilient infrastructure, including safe water, sanitation, ventilation and heat protection.
3. Learning-continuity plans for climate emergencies.
4. Climate-smart curriculum linked to local environmental realities.
5. Systematic teacher training on climate resilience and emergency education.
6. Multiple learning channels—printed materials, mobile communication, online platforms, television, radio and community learning—so that a disaster does not automatically mean a complete halt to education.
7. Climate-responsive financing and data systems so resources are directed towards communities facing the greatest risks.

Bangladesh should also develop a national Education and Climate Dashboard tracking school closures, instructional days lost, examination disruption, infrastructure damage, attendance, dropout, learning recovery and climate exposure.

The poorest children must be at the centre

Climate change does not affect all children equally.

A financially secure urban family may arrange alternative transport during flooding or continue learning online. A child in a remote char, haor or coastal community may have no internet connection, no private tutor and no alternative learning environment.

Climate-resilient education must therefore also be pro-poor education policy. Climate adaptation financing should prioritise communities where climate vulnerability and educational disadvantage overlap. Education authorities, disaster-management agencies and social-protection programmes must work together.

From emergency response to resilience

Bangladesh has considerable experience responding to disasters. The next challenge is to make the education system resilient before disasters occur.

Our traditional cycle has been:
Disaster → School closure → Damage → Repair → Reopening

We need to move towards:
Risk assessment → Preparedness → Learning continuity → Safe assessment → Recovery → Adaptation

This is more than an education reform. It is an investment in Bangladesh’s human capital.

Climate change is already entering our classrooms—not merely as a chapter in a textbook, but through floods, heatwaves, cyclones, waterlogging, salinity and displacement.

If Bangladesh wants to protect the enormous investment it has made in education, climate resilience cannot remain a specialised development project. It must become a national education priority.

Our children should not have to choose between surviving climate change and continuing their education.

We cannot control when the rain falls. We cannot prevent every flood. But we can build an education system capable of continuing when normal conditions disappear.

The real test of our education system is not how it performs when everything goes according to plan. The real test is whether it can protect a child’s right to learn when normal life is disrupted.

A resilient Bangladesh must ensure that climate shocks do not become permanent educational setbacks.

A climate-resilient Bangladesh cannot be built without a climate-resilient education system.

Author is Md. Noor Hossain is an Education Leader, Curriculum Specialist, Teacher Trainer and Researcher. He is a former Associate Professor of Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College, Dhaka, and currently serves as In-Charge of Park International School and College, Khilgaon, Dhaka, following the Cambridge Curriculum from PG to A Level.