Keeping schools open when climate change threatens learning

Link has been chosen by HundrED and Villars Institute as one of the top 10 innovations (out of 222!) using education for planetary health!

Picture this: you are seven years old, sitting on the floor of a classroom with 120 other children. Your teacher is teaching subtraction. There are no desks. No textbooks. No colourful posters. No smartboard. You have a few bottle tops to use as counters. 

Then the sky turns dark. Wind rushes through the open windows and through cracks in the brick wall. Thunder booms. Rain hammers on the tin roof so loudly that nobody can hear. Some children are frightened. The headteacher shouts: “School is closed. Go home.” Children run through huge puddles and jump across streams of water rushing through the school compound. 

That was the reality for many children during Cyclone Freddy in 2023 — the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded. In Malawi, 633 educational institutions were closed for days. Roofs were ripped off. Walls collapsed. Classrooms became temporary shelters for families who had lost their homes. Learning stopped. 

In countries where Link Education International and partners work — Malawi, Uganda and Ethiopia — schools are already doing a huge amount with very limited resources. Teachers are stretched. Classrooms are crowded. Textbooks are scarce. Computers are rare – in some schools there is no electricity. 53% of children reach the age of 10 still unable to read confidently or do basic maths, even after completing primary school. And it’s even worse for girls or children with disabilities. 

Then a flood comes. Or a storm. Or a drought. And the learning gap gets even wider. And as we know, these climate events are becoming increasingly frequent.  

So what do we do? The answer cannot be to add on another task to a headteacher’s already long to do list or expect a school to adopt a new framework. The smarter answer is to build climate resilience into the systems schools already use. 

Every year, schools create School Improvement Plans. This is where teachers, parents, learners, community members and local leaders collectively look at a school’s data and asks: what needs to improve? Do we need more books? Better numeracy teaching? Better support for girls? Better access for children with disabilities? 

These plans matter because they help unlock the school grant — government funding that schools can use to make improvements.  

In Malawi, Link worked with government teams to include climate-resilient activities in this normal planning process. Not as a separate project. Not as something extra. Just simple but broader planning that goes beyond traditional educational needs to also include climate resilience within normal practice.  

The activities are practical. Schools might plant trees to reduce soil erosion, create tree nurseries for future seedlings, build channels to divert rainwater away from classrooms, map danger zones before a storm hits, or practise evacuation drills — including instructions that work for learners with mobility, hearing or sight impairments.

And because the whole community helps create the plan, climate action becomes a shared mission. Local people know which trees hold the soil. They know where water flows during heavy rain. They know which paths become dangerous. That knowledge matters — and when the community owns the plan, they are more likely to do the work to help make it happen. 

There is another powerful route: extracurricular clubs. Wildlife Clubs in Uganda, Nature Clubs in Ethiopia, and Disaster Risk Management Clubs in Malawi give young people a chance to become climate leaders. Learners green their schools, share messages in assemblies, and take ideas into their communities through songs, drama and poetry. They do not just learn about climate action — they practise it. They turn knowledge into action.  

The best climate solutions are not always huge, shiny inventions. Sometimes they are smart changes to systems that already exist: a school plan, a club, a community meeting, a map. Simple things, done together, can keep classrooms open and learning happening. 

If we want an idea like this to grow across an education system, three things matter. 

1. RELEVANCE — it must fit the system. It needs to solve a problem the system recognises, not create a parallel process that depends on external voice. 
2. POLITICAL WILL — leaders need to believe it matters because it helps solve a real problem. 
3. LOCAL OWNERSHIP — the people who use the idea need to shape it, adapt it and own it. If people are simply handed a solution, it may disappear. If they help build it, it can last. 

Climate change is not only about polar bears or melting ice. It is also about whether a child can sit safely in a classroom and learn subtraction while the rain falls outside. 

And if we protect that classroom, we protect more than a building. We protect confidence. We protect opportunity. We protect futures. 

So let’s think more deeply and creatively about the link between education and planetary health. A healthy planet keeps schools open so children can learn. Educated young people help communities protect the planet. 

With education systems already under pressure, we need to start where we are. Use what already exists. Strengthen the systems schools already depend on. Keep classrooms open. Keep learning going. And help build a future that can weather the storm.