In addition to devastating livestock, crops, homes (in essence, people’s sources of income and conditions of well-being) hurricanes are especially cruel to education. They damage and destroy school infrastructure, equipment and teaching materials, and the resulting floods and landslides prevent teachers and students from accessing schools.
Subsequently, schools are often used as refuges, leading to an even greater interruption of classes. The numbers are staggering: in 2016, Hurricane Matthew damaged 300 schools in Haiti; in 2021, Eta and Iota affected 76 schools in Nicaragua and 340 in Guatemala.
Climate change is causing more frequent and severe weather events, and 2022 is no exception. As an example, in 2020, the most active hurricane season in Atlantic history, there were 30 named storms, including 14 hurricanes, seven of which became major hurricanes.
Storms never come alone; that same year, they coincided with the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left 170 million students without one out of every two effective days of school in more than two years in the region. The impact on attendance, and therefore on learning achievements, is unprecedented, as is the increase in dropout rates. It is estimated that the loss is equivalent to 1.5 years of learning.
The impact of extreme heat on children’s development
Even so, it is expected that phenomena related to slow climate change will continue to be produced in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as the increase in surface and ocean temperatures, and the frequency and intensity of heat waves and droughts.
But decision makers are unaware of the repercussions of extreme heat on children’s development from the moment they are in the womb and, during the school years, on their ability to concentrate in class and on their general well-being. All this means that completing secondary education, a key determinant of life chances, has become more difficult.
At the same time, we must consider that the school must be something more than a place of learning; it should provide a space for students to develop social and emotional connections, as highlighted in the recently published International Evidence-Based Assessment of Science and Education (ISEE).
However, while this UNESCO report asserts that climate change has the potential to undermine social cohesion and interaction, it does not explicitly identify how. In light of this, it is crucial that we all agree that without school infrastructure or physical access to schools, students have fewer opportunities to create relationships through which they can flourish.
The WHO Health Promoting Schools (HES) framework has appropriately fostered the notion that educational policy and programs should pay attention to the physical surroundings of the school.
Unfortunately, the EPS focus has never really taken off in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite the fact that in a high percentage of schools, access to the most basic needs, such as clean water, sanitation and hygiene, remains extremely limited.
Furthermore, while EPS provides a useful theoretical approach, its assumption is that there is a school infrastructure (albeit a basic one) where a single teacher or a team of principals, staff and teachers can work to create a sense of community and empowerment to achieve change. But there is little evidence that the region is even debating what the future of schools will look like in the current climate change emergency.
As in a war, as the region continues to struggle to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, roads and paths, and school facilities small and large, will continue to be destroyed along with livelihoods and sources of income.
After witnessing how governments in Latin America and the Caribbean have had great difficulties adapting to changes during the pandemic, for example, neglecting to create other options for learning and socializing, how can we expect decision-makers and policy makers Can you imagine a different and viable future for schools that seriously addresses the climate change crisis unfolding before us?
Climate change: a major obstacle for schools
While schools face a number of obstacles in the region, climate change could represent the biggest one, threatening the very foundations of how we think a school should be. A building that is at the heart of a community committed to the new generations, where parents want their children to be safe and happy. Indeed, one of the most courageous acts of resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean will increasingly consist of protecting students’ right to physically remain in school.
There is no vaccine or a mask, or an equally concrete measure to help students continue their education when schools must face the extraordinary magnitude of events related to climate change. Revitalizing views on education requires transgressing traditional boundaries of educational understanding and planning. Are governments and key actors in the field of education in Latin America and the Caribbean willing to take the step forward?
