Bangladesh lags in climate education: WB report

47% secondary teachers believe climate change coverage in media is overstated

Bangladesh falls short in climate education and action with significant gaps in both student knowledge and teacher perceptions, a recent report by the World Bank shows.

Only 3% of Bangladeshi grade-8 students could correctly answer a set of six basic climate change questions, said the report, titled “Choosing Our Future: Education for Climate Action”, released on Wednesday.
Besides, just 32% of secondary students were able to answer at least one out of the six questions, the report found, exploring the role of education in responding to climate change and the challenges climate change poses to education systems.

The report is based on existing and novel data from low and middle-income countries, including a youth survey (ages 17-35 years) on climate and education from eight countries: Bangladesh, Angola, China, Columbia, India, Kazakhstan, Senegal, and Tanzania.

It also includes a secondary student survey on climate mindsets, and a teacher survey on mainstreaming climate curriculum from several countries including Bangladesh.

According to the study, nearly 93% of Bangladeshi secondary students believe climate change is happening, and about 40% feel they are personally affected by it.

However, despite 88% of these students wanting to take action, they feel ill-equipped to do so.

Moreover, Bangladesh’s most vulnerable students—those performing worse in maths tests, from less wealthy households, or whose mothers have low education levels—seem to be the least equipped with climate knowledge.

The survey also shows that nearly 47% of secondary teachers in Bangladesh “mistakenly believe that climate change coverage in the media is overstated”.

Improved education can fill gaps

Climate action remains slow due to information gaps and misleading information on climate awareness, as well as due to missing skilled workers, the survey found.

Nearly 87% of teachers across six low-and middle-income countries reported including climate topics in their lessons. However, nearly 71% answered at least one basic climate related question incorrectly.

Policymakers can help schools do much more for climate by focusing on foundations, incorporating practical and relevant climate curriculum, and building teacher capacity, the report recommended.

Governments must also increase the number of students who study STEM subjects, especially women and students from marginalised groups, as STEM skills are essential in sectors that will be key to the green transition and require deep changes in practices and technologies, like agriculture and energy.

Adaptation of education to climate change

These investments on education will only pay off if education outcomes are protected from the impacts of climate change, said the World Bank. 

“As high temperatures and natural disasters become more common, schools face longer and more frequent closures, with each missed day setting back children’s educational progress,” it added.

Even when schools do not close, increasing heat erodes children’s learning, the report observed. “Climate adaptation investments can head off these effects on learning, and estimates in the World Bank report show that governments have cost-effective options as low as a one-time investment of $18.51 per student.”

These cost-effective possibilities include solutions for temperature control, infrastructure resilience, remote learning during school closures, and teacher training. 

The first two will help reduce the likelihood of climate-related school closures and all four will help minimise climate-related learning losses, said the report.