UN Says 250 million Students Missed School in 2024 Because of Weather

01A United Nations report has found that extreme weather interrupted the schooling of at least 242 million children last year.

02The weather included severe events such as heat waves, cyclones, and extreme dryness and flooding, the UN's Children's Fund, UNICEF, said.

03Students in 85 nations were affected.

04UNICEF said weather-related interruptions amounted to one in seven school-aged children across the world being kept out of class at some point during 2024.

05The report also noted that some countries said that hundreds of their schools were destroyed by weather.

06Nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were hit especially hard.

07But the report said other parts of the world also experienced problems.

08The report noted that heavy rains and flooding near the end of 2024 disrupted school for more than 900,000 children in Italy.

09And in Spain, thousands of students had their classes canceled because of severe flooding.

10UNICEF reported that southern Europe experienced deadly floods, and parts of Asia and Africa suffered flooding and cyclones.

11But heat waves, the report noted, were the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year.

12More than 118 million children had their schooling interrupted in April alone, the report said.

13Those interruptions were linked to heat waves in parts of the Middle East and Asia.

14School was interrupted because temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius.

15UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement, The report shows that the world's children today are more vulnerable to extreme weather-related events than in the past.

16She added, Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded or if schools are washed away.

17Around 74% of the children affected in 2024 were in middle- and low-income countries, the report said.

18UNICEF said this demonstrates how climate extremes continue to have a damaging effect on the world's poorest countries.

19In Pakistan, flooding ruined more than 400 schools in April.

20And Afghanistan experienced heat waves followed by severe flooding that destroyed more than 110 schools in May.

21Months of drought in southern Africa threatened schooling for millions of children, the report added.

22More recently, the French territory of Mayat in the Indian Ocean off Africa was left in ruins by Cyclone Chido in December.

23Cyclone Chido also destroyed more than 330 schools and three education departments in Mozambique.

24The UN Children's Agency report stated the world's schools and education systems are largely ill-equipped to deal with the effects of extreme weather.

25I'm Brian Lynn.