Citation: Bangay, C. and Blum, N. (2010) Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two
Parts of the Same Agenda? International Journal of Educational Development 30(4): 335-450.
Figure 1: Educational Responses to Climate Change and Generalised Sequential View
• School location risk assessment
• Climate ‘proofed’ school design
• Adapting to seasonality
changes (school year, exam
calendar, textbook distribution)
• Disaster preparedness capacity
e.g. to respond to internally
displaced children / minimize
disruption of schooling
• Increased ‘scientific literacy’
e.g. higher education capacity
to facilitate technological
transfer
• Capacity to respond to new
migration streams
• Demand side interventions e.g.
conditional cash transfers
• Integrated school / health
interventions that protect
cognitive development
• Curriculum, assessment, teacher
education reform e.g. localised
curriculum components
• Internationally portable
qualifications (especially for small
island states)
• Research
• Pedagogy and assessment systems
that promote ‘higher order thinking’
in support of sustainable livelihoods
• Orientation towards new ‘low
carbon’ technologies & sustainable
futures
Adaptation
Mitigation
Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (also
known as the New Delhi work program) directs countries to consider education, training and
public awareness as integral to responses to climate change. Increasingly, country plans
developed utilising the UNFCCC framework do incorporate education-specific elements.
However, the degree of success of such plans will be determined by the extent to which
countries recognise and are able to adequately resource responses to the challenges posed
by climate change, namely: extreme weather events, changes in seasonality, population
movements, and demand side and health impacts on enrolment, attendance and educational
performance. These challenges will need to be addressed both in terms of educational
infrastructure as well as teaching and learning.
6.1 Climate Proofing Education Infrastructure
„Climate change proofing’ of educational infrastructure in order to minimise the risks and
associated costs of weather-related damage is clearly an important starting point. This would
entail better risk assessment in making decisions about school location and improved
building design/ maintenance to better withstand severe weather events (see Das 2008) as
well as slower incremental change (e.g. school / community water catchment systems). A
concerted focus on school design and upgrading offers opportunities both to reduce
environmental impact in terms of the materials used (e.g. minimising use of burnt bricks and
tiles in construction, discontinuing the use of wood-burning stoves), and also to incorporate
design elements which create improved learning environments (e.g. levels of natural lighting,
sanitation facilities, reduced noise from rain impact, spaces conducive for learning).
The impacts of climate change are widely predicted to result in significant population
movements. Save the Children’s (2008) „Legacy of Disasters’ report, for instance, cites an
estimate that by 2010 there will be 50 million 'environmentally displaced people'. The scale
of such events ranges from „short term’ population displacement resulting from extreme
weather events to wholesale international population movements associated with the
inundation of low lying islands. The need to respond to periodic forced in- and out-migration
of student populations who are displaced by extreme weather events suggests the need for
„portable schools’ and/ or schools in „buffer zones’ capable of accommodating expanded
numbers of students at short notice. In addition to the physical demands of more school
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