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.
„Education is as important as health: a well-educated population is better equipped to
recognise in advance the threats posed by a changing climate and to make
preparations. This is one of many areas where ordinary development aid, properly
directed, can potentially achieve multiple objectives at once, serving classic
development and human rights aims while at the same time contributing to societies’
long-term ability to adapt to climate change.’ (International Council on Human Rights
Policy 2008: 26-27)
3. Climate/ Environmental Change and Education - Supply, Demand & Learning
Implications
To date the majority of research on education and climate change has focused on the impact
of climate and associated environmental change on schooling. According to two recent
publications: Save the Children’s (2008) „Legacy of Disasters’ and UNICEF UK’s (2008) „Our
Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility’, it is children who will be hardest hit by the effects
of climate change. These impacts will be seen, for instance, in the direct effects on
educational provision associated with increasing incidence of severe weather events (e.g.
drought, flooding, cyclones, heat waves). Over the longer term, incremental environmental
changes (e.g. sea level change, salination, changes in season patterns, desertification, soil
erosion, species loss, etc.) are also likely to result in deteriorating livelihoods which impact
upon both household expenditure on schooling and the nutritional status of children.
Evidence of the supply side consequences of extreme weather events is already emerging.
The aftermath of Cyclone Sidr, which struck Bangladesh in November 2007, left 74
government primary schools destroyed and another 8,817 damaged. An estimated 103,664
children were affected as a result. The estimated cost of reconstruction and refurbishment
was more than US$ 82 million (see Das 2008). Similarly, the 2000 flood in Cambodia
destroyed approximately 18% of the country’s schools, impacting upon the education of
500,000 children and costing $1.6 million in rehabilitation costs. Subsequent research in
Cambodia has also demonstrated that school absenteeism and drop out are higher in flood-
prone areas. Moreover, there is evidence that flooding inhibits completion of the school
programme, with schools located in flood-prone areas subject to at least one and a half
months of closure due to flooding (Asian Disaster Preparedness Center 2008).
The cumulative effects of extreme weather events on both initial enrolment and longer term
educational performance are not well known. Research in India, however, concludes that
women born during flood years in the 1970s were 19% less likely to have attended primary
school (UNDP 2007). It would also seem safe to conclude that interrupted/ reduced access
to education has a detrimental impact on learning outcomes, reducing the likelihood that
children and young people - and especially girls - will be able to break the cycle of poverty
(Elimu Yetu Coalition 2005). A further important implication that the Cambodia and
Bangladesh examples demonstrate is the significant financial burden that rehabilitation costs
exert on constrained education budgets. Emergency responses to extreme weather events
and their aftermath thus have the potential to undermine investment in the longer term
quality improvement of education provision.
Over the longer term, climate change impacts in combination with factors such as population
pressure are likely to lead to environmental degradation and the related deterioration in
livelihoods. Associated reductions in household income will influence decisions regarding the
number and gender of children sent to school as well as whether there is continued support
for their attendance. Moreover, deteriorating livelihoods are likely to increase the time
required to secure clean water and fuel, and to care for siblings and the sick. Research
suggests that in all instances such effects are likely to disproportionately affect girls and
impact on gender equity and female student performance.