The country is no stranger to extreme heat, and we need to do more to make our schools resilient to climate change. After two years of Covid-19 closures that severely disrupted education at schools, we are still taking easy shortcuts and shutting down schools, rather than teaching our children long-term implications for countries like India on the frontlines of climate change.

In a 2020 survey by Unicef of 25,000 students in eight South Asian countries, 78% said climate change had impacted their right to education. A study by Unesco analyzed education plans in nearly 50 countries and found that more than half make no reference to climate change. The most crucial intervention that we must make progress on is professional support for teachers to teach climate change in class through various forms, ranging from formal classroom instruction to extracurricular activities but with many teachers' limited grasp of the science, it's not easy to teach climate change comprehensively in a classroom.

There is a greater need for emphasis on interdisciplinary climate change education, the students should also learn about the policies and solutions that are being proposed to address climate change, such as renewable energy, carbon pricing, and sustainable agriculture. Teaching about climate change gets at the core and the heart of what school is ultimately for: Helping kids make sense of the world around them, while preparing them for the future.

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