Stanford research highlights the educational setbacks caused by tropical cyclones in low- and middle-income countries, revealing significant impacts on school enrollment and emphasizing the need for urgent disaster preparedness.
New research led by Stanford University uncovers a significant yet often overlooked consequence of climate change: the disruption of educational opportunities in low- and middle-income countries following tropical cyclones.
The findings, published April 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate how these powerful storms impact school enrollment, particularly in areas unaccustomed to frequent cyclones, and highlight how girls bear an unequal share of the burden.
“There’s a sweet spot — or maybe I should say a sour spot — where cyclones are intense enough but also rare enough to wreak havoc that causes children to lose out on the opportunity to attend school,” senior author Eran Bendavid, a professor of medicine and health policy in the Stanford School of Medicine and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, said in a news release.
The researchers examined schooling records of over 5.4 million people across 13 low- and middle-income countries hit by tropical cyclones between 1954 and 2010.
The findings are striking: exposure to any cyclone at the preschool age (around 5 or 6 years old) is associated with a 2.5% decrease in the likelihood of starting primary school, with as much as an 8.8% decrease after intense storms in communities not accustomed to such events.
In the past two decades, these tropical cyclones have prevented more than 79,000 children in the study’s 13 countries from ever commencing school.
The cumulative effect amounts to a loss of 1.1 million years of school, with girls disproportionately affected. This deepens existing educational disparities in these regions, often requiring girls to stay home and assist with household needs in the aftermath of a storm.
“Education is key to personal development, but tropical cyclones are depriving vulnerable populations of the opportunity to go to school,” added lead author Renzhi Jing, a postdoctoral scholar in the Stanford School of Medicine and an affiliated researcher at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
Tropical cyclones, characterized by rotating systems of clouds and thunderstorms with strong winds and heavy rain, are expected to increase in frequency and intensity as climate change continues, exacerbating their impact on vulnerable populations.
These storms damage school buildings, roads and homes, displacing children and necessitating their involvement in home repairs.
Communities less frequently exposed to cyclones appear to face harsher impacts due to inadequate preparedness and infrastructure. Conversely, regions with regular cyclone exposure have developed some level of resilience, attenuating the decline in school enrollment.
This contrast highlights the need for targeted disaster preparedness, resilient infrastructure and community-based adaptation efforts.
The study emphasizes the urgency of addressing the educational impacts of climate change, particularly in the world’s most impoverished regions. With stronger and more frequent cyclones on the horizon, policy makers and international organizations must prioritize defending educational infrastructure and support systems, particularly for girls.
Stanford’s team included co-authors Sam Heft-Neal from the Stanford Center on Food Security and the Environment and Minghao Qiu from the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, alongside collaborators from the Rand Corporation and Princeton University.
Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health, the Katharine McCormick Advanced Postdoctoral Scholar Fellowship and the Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Source: Stanford University