Learning Freezes

Every year, the cold wave disrupts daily life in the Tarai. This also affects the teaching and learning activities of school students. Schools are closed due to excessive cold, but there is no alternative system to continue teaching and learning activities. Most schools in Madhes are poorly built. Unsafe corrugated sheet roofs, broken windows, missing doors, and bare cement floors make it impossible during cold. Moreover, the students lack shoes and warm clothes and even proper meals. Learning in such conditions is not feasible, and education naturally fades into the background.  The one-week school closure in late December last year may appear humane, but it is actually a continuum of government failure to plan for education during extreme weather.  

Cold wave outbreaks, heat waves, floods, and seasonal diseases follow a predictable routine. Every winter, the schools have to be closed suddenly to save the pupils from the extreme cold.  The shutting down of schools without alternatives means a complete halt in learning for students. Unreliable school schedules disconnect students from learning institutions. Children belonging to poor families who already lack a proper environment to continue education often drop out of school in the middle of a session. Learning becomes an option rather than a requirement by circumstances.

The Tarai area was already below the national average in education, and now the effects of the bad weather mean that this gap has further widened. It is not because the climate itself is creating inequality, but because the public system is not adapting to it. A lack of infrastructure, poor observation, and policies that do not align with the reality of the region mean that the problem of education denial is masked. This cold wave brings inequality between the rich and the poor. The children of richer parents can stay warm indoors and continue to study. The children of the poorest of the poor have to choose between their health and education. If the government cannot provide basic protection to kids against nature, then nothing can be more meaningless than their claim of free and compulsory education. 

Failures in governance also add to the crisis. For instance, although local governments have a constitutional mandate to provide education, without funding, planning, and technical capacities, autonomy is just a matter of symbolic power. Closing schools may mitigate the risk of cold-induced health hazards. However, without alternative learning systems, children are deprived of the right to education. Climate change has brought extreme weather conditions as an inevitability, and the unacceptable part is the lack of preparedness on the institutional side. Education policies continue to be framed with stable seasons, fixed calendars, and standardised classrooms, which is not feasible in every weather condition of Madhes. 

The concerned authorities should start seasonal academic planning, insulated classrooms, flexible modules of learning, home assignments during emergencies, and community programmes for learning. Upkeep of school lunches, winter clothes, and safe heating systems in classrooms is mandatory.  It is paramount to have climate- and weather-friendly educational infrastructure. So that there would not be a learning gap following any kind of weather condition. If schools remain closed without any solutions, thousands of students will disappear from classrooms, and the school dropout rate will increase silently. When students are not provided with a suitable environment to cope with bad weather conditions like cold waves, the concept of equality will be limited only to papers.