Climate hazards shut millions of children out of school in 2025

Floods, cyclones, and extreme heat forced millions of children out of classrooms in 2025, with a new report revealing that climate-related school disruptions have reached a crisis point across the developing world. The scale of the problem is staggering — and it’s getting worse.

Water rising through the floors

When the creek beside Taudibura Garo’s school in Papua New Guinea floods, the water doesn’t stop at the gate. It rises through the pit toilets, contaminating the grounds and making the entire site unsafe. The 16-year-old and her classmates are sent home, sometimes for days at a time, losing instruction hours they’ll never get back.

“The water comes up to our knees,” she said. “We just have to leave.”

It’s not just Papua New Guinea. Across Bangladesh, Somalia, the Philippines, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, children are facing the same impossible situation — weather they didn’t cause, and an education system that wasn’t built to survive it.

The numbers tell a grim story

Save the Children estimates that climate and weather-related disasters disrupted schooling for at least 242 million children in 2023 alone. Projections for 2025 suggest that figure is climbing. Floods account for the largest share of disruptions, but extreme heat is increasingly forcing school closures too — particularly across South and Southeast Asia, where some countries recorded temperatures above 42°C during the school day earlier this year.

In the Philippines, 2,000 schools were damaged or destroyed by typhoons in a single 12-month period. In South Sudan, seasonal flooding routinely wipes out weeks of the academic calendar. And in parts of West Africa, desertification is making long daily walks to school physically dangerous for young children.

More than just missed days

The consequences extend well beyond lost classroom time. When schools close for extended periods, girls are disproportionately likely not to return. Child marriage rates spike. Child labour increases. The disruption compounds existing inequality — children who were already behind fall further back, and the gap between the most and least vulnerable widens.

This is an education emergency hiding inside a climate emergency.

“We’re talking about a generation of children whose futures are being quietly eroded,” said a UNICEF spokesperson. “Every school day lost is a decision point — and too often, the decision made is that school just isn’t an option anymore.”

What needs to happen next

Advocates are calling on wealthy nations to direct more climate finance specifically toward school infrastructure in vulnerable countries — flood-resistant buildings, elevated sanitation systems, emergency learning protocols that don’t simply send children home and hope for the best. Some countries are experimenting with climate-resilient school designs. But progress is slow, and the weather isn’t waiting.

For Taudibura Garo, the solution doesn’t feel complicated. She just wants to finish her classes. So far in 2025, the creek has already flooded three times.