UNICEF’s account of extreme heat in April 2024 describes widespread school closures in Bangladesh and the Philippines, alongside a two-hour reduction in Cambodia’s school day. Such changes affect when children can learn and how families organise their day. UNICEF’s account of school disruptions in 2024.
The agency’s Learning Interrupted snapshot puts the number of students affected by climate-related school disruption during 2024 at no fewer than 242 million, across 85 countries or territories. It covers pupils from pre-primary through upper secondary education. The snapshot places about 74% of affected students in low- and lower-middle-income countries. UNICEF’s 2024 snapshot.
Disruption covers closures and substantial interruptions to school schedules. The count does not describe permanent departures from education, and it cannot tell us the extent of learning loss for each affected child. That limit matters when deciding what evidence schools need after a disruption.
Prepare for the interrupted week
For education leaders, these findings make continuity planning part of ordinary school management. A useful plan should establish who decides that conditions require a change and how families hear about it. Responsibility needs to be clear before the first affected morning.
Planning must also consider how children learn during an interruption. If a school intends to send work home, it should check whether pupils can use it with the resources available to them. Any plan that depends on a live connection needs a way to reach families who cannot join.
Teachers need guidance on the work to prioritise and a manageable way to stay in contact. Recreating a full classroom timetable at home places demands on everyone involved. A school should choose activities that fit the conditions and explain how pupils can ask for help.
Schools would need to test these planning proposals against their local circumstances. A review after an interruption helps establish how well the response serves the children affected.
Make reopening part of the response
Returning to the classroom creates its own work. Staff need to establish who is back in class and follow up with families who remain out of contact. Pupils also need an opportunity to discuss their work from the interruption.
The next lessons should respond to that evidence. Assuming the whole class is at the same point risks making the restart harder for children with the least opportunity to study during a closure. Time for revisiting essential material belongs in the recovery plan.
School leaders can use each disruption to revise the plan for the next one. A record of gaps in contact or unusable learning activities provides specific decisions to revisit. Budget discussions can then address a defined weakness, with someone responsible for checking whether the change works during a future interruption.