I was recently asked to deliver a keynote speech on education system responses to climate/environmental change at Schools 2030 on the international day of play. Taking that cue, I used common children’s games —the ‘jigsaw,’ ‘snakes and ladders’ and ‘building blocks’—to explore how education systems have responded to these challenges.

The Jigsaw (The What)

Completing a complex jigsaw without the picture on the box is virtually impossible. Understanding the big picture is a critical first step.

Climate change is caused by greenhouse gases coming from burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and petroleum). Historically these have largely emanated from industrialized countries while most low- and middle-income countries have contributed little CO2.

However, low- and middle-income countries will bear the brunt of climate impacts. These facts make for an important environmental justice issue, however no single country can stop global climate change. Collective effort on adaptation and mitigation is essential.

Which countries are most responsible for climate change

An understanding of the big picture of how climate, the environment and education intersect begins with an understanding of the interplay between physical processes and human actions.

A ‘climate-only’ focus rightly draws attention to global emissions contributions, but meaningful solutions at national and local level require a focus on broader environmental and livelihood challenges.

Charting the complex interlinkage between causal drivers, environmental pressures and impacts on development at national and local level is essential. This has been clearly articulated by World Bank work in Malawi in their country environmental analysis that highlights the interplay of a rising population, climate change, resource needs and country practices contributing to environmental degradation as well as what this means for poverty and economic development within the country:

Understanding links between extreme weather events, poverty, environmental degradation and governance is also essential.

The case of the 2017 landslide in Freetown, Sierra Leone which killed over a 1,000 people and destroyed schools, houses and health clinics was a tragedy that had its origins in climate change—extreme rainfall beyond the control of Sierra Leonians—however the other contributing factors were amenable to local action and decisions made by leaders.

This illustrates how there still is a level of agency when thinking about environmental issues and impact that moves beyond climate change and climate science.

Fortunately, there are a wealth of open-source materials covering national climate/environmental risk and vulnerability which can help provide the bigger picture and education systems planning. Ways to think about education systems risk at a country level developed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provides a useful starting point.

Snakes and Ladders (The Why)

Promoting change in thinking and approaches for addressing issues tied to climate, the environment and education is most likely when all understand the underlying logic or imperative—that is to say, answering the ‘why’ question. At a systems level, this is especially true when related to financing across the climate and education sectors. Preparatory action now can save lives, money and protect student teacher contact time.

Unfortunately, climate and environmental change is already impacting education. On the ‘supply side’ of delivering education, extreme weather events are resulting in classrooms being destroyed and hot stuffy classrooms poorly adapted to rising temperatures do not make for conducive learning conditions. However good the curriculum, teacher, textbooks or ICT, if children and teachers are too hot, thirsty, or hungry, learning will suffer.

On the ‘demand side’ deteriorating livelihoods reduce household income and can lead to choices being made on which children are sent to school. Similarly, they impact on nutrition and health, as Gavi notes over half of infectious diseases are made worse by climate change. Increased disease prevalence (e.g. Malaria, cholera) reduces both teacher and student attendance at school.

Building Blocks (The How)

Building a construction toy is all about ensuring you have the right parts and putting them together in the right order. It helps to have a plan to do this. In terms of education systems, some key themes stand out:

• Think time - over years and within years (seasonality). Prioritizing and sequencing interventions in terms of short, medium and long term really helps. It also pays to consider the issue of ‘seasonality.’ Are there times of year when education is more disrupted in a given context? What is supposed to be taught during those times? Is remediation required to supplement time lost on instruction to ensure students remain on track in their learning?
• Think geography. Climate and environmental impacts vary considerably depending on where you are in the world. Geographic information systems and artificial intelligence are increasingly being used to support anticipatory action to mitigate climate shocks, identifying a range of issues at school level from flood risk and rainwater catchment potential to watershed pollution.
• Think infrastructure. Where and how you build buildings, and what you build them with, can make a big difference for schools’ resilience and learning outcomes.

• Think (differently) about learning. Too often the knee-jerk reaction when thinking about the role of education is that if people know more, they’ll behave differently. However, the outcomes of countless public health and safety campaigns challenge that assumption. Further, emerging evidence in child psychology suggests a knowledge-only approach to climate change can escalate anxiety. Feelings of helplessness are best countered by education that equips students with agency. Education needs to go beyond ‘learning to know’ and incorporate ‘learning to do.’ Changing the curriculum could be a starting point, but we must move beyond factual recall to problem framing and solving in ways which promote individual and collective agency. This means closer attention to assessment systems and pedagogy as well as teacher preparation.

While the fundamentals of system-wide responses to climate/environmental challenges can be distilled into three simple steps: 1. get the big picture, 2. recognize your risks, 3. prioritize, plan and respond; education’s level of impact depends on timely and effective implementation—a much harder proposition to distil, but time is pressing. There really is no time to wait.