Extreme heat forces school closures across Asia, affecting millions of students

Schools in Asia are canceling classes or moving them online amid record-breaking heatwaves that are being made worse by climate change.

HONG KONG — Schools in Asia that endured some of the longest shutdowns of the pandemic are once again canceling classes or moving them online, this time due to record-breaking heat waves.

Experts say rising temperatures fueled by climate change and the resulting disruptions to schooling threaten to widen the learning gaps between children in developing and developed countries, and that they should serve as a warning to schools around the world as summer approaches.

Some 33 million children have been forced to stay home in recent days after authorities ordered the closure of schools in Bangladesh, where temperatures in some parts of the South Asian country soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Nowadays it’s unbearably hot. You feel your skin burning when the sun rays fall on you,” said Kazi Rayan bin Hassan, a 15-year-old high school student in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

Similar closures have affected parts of eastern India, which recorded its hottest April on record, killing at least nine people as the country holds a nationwide election. On Wednesday, public schools in Cambodia were instructed to shorten the school day by two hours to avoid the hottest temperatures at midday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/schools-close-extreme-heat-philippines-bangladesh-asia-rcna149485

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