UNICEF says climate hazards disrupted schooling for 171 million students in 2025
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The Facts
- UNICEF said climate hazards disrupted schooling for more than 171 million students globally in 2025.
- The affected students represented about one in 10 learners from pre-primary through upper secondary school.
- UNICEF based its analysis on data from 106 countries and territories.
- UNICEF identified storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires as causes of school disruptions.
- Climate hazards led to school closures, damaged facilities, reduced teaching time and lower attendance.
- UNICEF said climate-related school disruptions increase the risk that students will drop out.
- UNICEF said girls face a higher risk of dropping out when climate hazards disrupt schools.
Context
What report produced these estimates?
The estimates come from UNICEF's report, “Learning Interrupted: Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions in 2025,” which analyzed 106 countries and territories. Al Jazeera Online Anadolu Ajansı
How can climate hazards interrupt education?
UNICEF said hazards can close or damage schools, shorten teaching time, shift lessons online and reduce attendance. H24info Deutsche Welle Anadolu Ajansı
Why are girls identified as particularly affected?
UNICEF said damage, displacement and lost household income can add caregiving and water-collection responsibilities for girls, making a return to school harder. NZ Herald Malay Mail
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both accept UNICEF's finding that climate-disrupted schooling raises dropout risk overall, and that girls face a distinctly higher risk of dropping out than boys.
- Where Left and Right split
- A global crisis demanding expanded international climate-education frameworks, or local governments needing practical, locally controlled resilience instead of new mandates.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust in supranational institutions: whether UNICEF's cross-country data justifies expanded global climate-education mandates or should stay a matter for local governments to act on.
How left and right read it
Education is supposed to be the buffer that protects a child's future, so when storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires disrupt it for more than 171 million students across 106 countries, the damage does not fall evenly. UNICEF's own findings show why that unevenness matters: disruption raises the risk of dropping out altogether, and girls face a higher risk of that outcome than boys. A crisis borne this unequally demands protection built around the students most likely to be pushed out for good.
Disruption to schooling is a matter for the communities and governments running those schools, not proof that a global climate framework must expand. UNICEF counted disruption across 106 countries from storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, and the dropout risk it flags for girls is reason enough to demand practical, locally controlled resilience and response, not another mandate justified by a report.
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