Nearly 250 million children missed school last year because of extreme weather, UNICEF says
Cape Town (AP): At least 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling interrupted last year because of heatwaves, cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a new report Friday.
UNICEF said it amounted to one in seven school-going children across the world being kept out of class at some point in 2024 because of climate hazards.
The report also outlined how some countries saw hundreds of their schools destroyed by weather, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa hit especially hard.
But other regions weren't spared the extreme weather, as torrential rains and floods in Italy near the end of the year disrupted school for more than 900,000 children. Thousands had their classes halted after catastrophic flooding in Spain.
While southern Europe dealt with deadly floods and Asia and Africa had flooding and cyclones, heatwaves were “the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year,” UNICEF said, as the earth recorded its hottest year ever.
More than 118 million children had their schooling interrupted in April alone, UNICEF said, as large parts of the Middle East and Asia, from Gaza in the west to the Philippines in the southeast, experienced a sizzling weekslong heatwave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
“Children's bodies are uniquely vulnerable. They heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults. Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded, or if schools are washed away."
Around 74% of the children affected in 2024 were in middle- and low-income countries, showing how climatic extremes continue to have a devastating impact in the poorest countries. Flooding ruined more than 400 schools in Pakistan in April. Afghanistan had heatwaves followed by severe flooding that destroyed over 110 schools in May, UNICEF said.
Months of drought in southern Africa exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon threatened the schooling and futures of millions of children.
And the crises showed little sign of abating. The poor French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa was left in ruins by Cyclone Chido in December and hit again by Tropical Storm Dikeledi this month, leaving children across the islands out of school for six weeks.
Cyclone Chido also destroyed more than 330 schools and three regional education departments in Mozambique on the African mainland, where access to education is already a deep problem.
UNICEF said the world's schools and education systems “are largely ill-equipped” to deal with the effects of extreme weather.
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Opposition members suspended from Parliamentary panel on Waqf bill
New Delhi (PTI): All opposition members of the parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill were suspended for a day on Friday amid continuous protests and accusations against Chairman Jagdambika Pal of steam-rolling through the proceedings.
The suspended members are Kalyan Banerjee, Mohammad Jawed, A Raja, Asaduddin Owaisi, Naseer Hussain, Mohibullah, Mohamed Abdullah, Arvind Sawant, Nadeem-ul Haque, Imran Masood.
BJP member Nishikant Dubey moved the motion for suspending the opposition members which was adopted by the committee,
BJP member Aparajita Sarangi claimed the conduct of opposition members was "disgusting" as they were continuously creating ruckus during the meeting and using unparliamentary language aganinst Pal.
The meeting of the parliamentary committee began a stormy note, with opposition members claiming they were not being given adequate time to study the proposed changes to the draft legislation.
Before calling Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the religious head of Kashmir, the members of the Committee held discussions among themselves which turned stormy with opposition leaders claiming the BJP was pushing for speedy acceptance of the report on the Waqf Amendment Bill with an eye on the Delhi elections.
The heated arguments during the meeting led to a brief adjournment of the proceedings. The Mirwaiz-led delegation appeared before the Committee after it reconvened.
Trinamool member Kalyan Banerjee and Congress member Naseer Hussain stormed out of the meeting and told reporters that the proceedings of the committee had become a "farce".
They demanded that the meeting scheduled for January 27 for examining the proposed amendments clause-by-clause be deferred to January 30 or January 31.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on August 8, 2024 following its introduction in the Lok Sabha by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
The bill aims to amend the Waqf Act, 1995, to address issues and challenges in regulating and managing waqf properties.
