Educational Barrier in the Tropics

One of the goals of sustainable development is education. Through education, it is hoped that the future generations could solve today’s problems of climate change. But, a study conducted by University of Maryland published on April 15th 2019 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed that exposure to extreme heat contributes a significant barrier for children to attain school.

Children living in the tropics are the first ones to feel the intensifying effects of climate change. According to the study, exposure to temperature that is higher than average and humidity during prenatal and early childhood associates with fewer years of school attendance. The study links the two subjects in 29 countries in the global tropics, including Southeast Asian countries, and provides more evidence on social impacts of climate change.

"If climate change undermines educational attainment, this may have a compounding effect on underdevelopment that over time magnifies the direct impacts of climate change… As the effects of climate change intensify, children in the tropics will face additional barriers to education," wrote the two authors, Heather Randell and Clark Gray.

This does not only applies to children coming from low-income families, but also those from well educated households. Supposedly, educated households would buffer their children from such effects as climate change. Yet as stated in the study, “these children tend to experience the greatest educational penalties when exposed to hotter early-life conditions and, in some regions, to drier conditions.”

This problem also magnifies the effect of climate change as linked to a country’s development, since education is one of the parameter of a developed country. In other words, climate change can undermine socio economic progress, especially to the third world populations.

A problem of such scale could quickly (though perhaps not significantly) be reduced through policy making. For example, policies to make sure pregnant women and young children can be privileged to avoid heat and humidity in public facilities.