The climate crisis is disrupting education around the world, especially in vulnerable countries like Bangladesh.

From Nigeria, fellow youth leader Lauritta Boniface shows how climate education can equip young people to adapt and lead. Together, their stories highlight why climate education must be part of every country’s response to the climate crisis.

Md. Redwan Jakir - Teach For Bangladesh Fellow and GPE youth leader

Teaching in a low-income government school in Bangladesh, I see how climate change is pushing the most vulnerable students even further behind in their access to quality education.

In 2024, Bangladesh experienced one of its worst climate shocks in recent history. From devastating floods to cyclones and extreme heatwaves, these disasters not only destroyed crops and homes, but they also disrupted schooling for millions of children.

Now, climate change is more evident than ever with rising temperatures and increasingly frequent heatwaves.

In June, the government was forced to close all primary and secondary schools due to an intense heatwave when classroom temperatures soared above 42°C—an unprecedented step taken to preserve student health.

However, many students experienced learning loss for weeks, especially those who didn't have access to digital learning.

In August 2024, heavy flooding hit low-lying areas in Bangladesh like Chattogram, Feni, Cumilla and Khagrachari. Many schools were used as temporary flood shelters, suspending classes and damaging infrastructure.

Thousands of students, especially those from remote areas, missed important learning time and were left without textbooks and educational materials.

By November, Cyclone ‘Remal’ swept through the coastal belt, further displacing families and forcing more school closures. These repeated shocks deepen existing inequalities in Bangladesh’s education system, especially for students in remote or low-income areas.

In my school community in Dhaka, I've been leading local climate education and literacy efforts by organizing sessions for students, parents and teachers.

My students and I have planted trees, introduced low-cost waste management systems and held a climate fair involving different stakeholders where students sold their upcycled products and displayed their paintings on climate change.

One of our school campaigns, “Green Currency,” encouraged students to collect plastic waste from community members in exchange for tree saplings.

As a teacher, I integrate climate change concepts into my daily math and science lessons to help students link learning with action. The goal is to foster local leadership so that students become agents of climate resilience in their communities.

Despite the urgency of the crisis, Bangladesh’s curriculum still lacks meaningful climate education. While there are some environmental references in science and geography textbooks, they’re scattered and not action oriented.

Most teachers also lack training in climate literacy, leaving students unprepared for a future shaped by environmental instability.

The 2010 National Education Policy, which still guides Bangladesh’s education sector, touches briefly on climate awareness—but more depth, structure and action-oriented steps are needed to implement climate education across the country.

As part of the process of reforming Bangladesh’s curriculum, climate education must be a core pillar. This means: incorporating climate concepts across subjects; emphasizing project-based learning; and training teachers systematically.

Bangladesh is already committed to several global frameworks including the UNFCCC’s Action for Climate Empowerment, UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development 2030 Roadmap and the Paris Agreement’s Article 12. These powerful commitments must be translated into actions on the ground.

A good example of this is the support GPE will provide under its Climate Smart Education Systems Initiative through targeted technical assistance so that Bangladesh can integrate climate resilience across these priority areas.

As a Teach For Bangladesh Fellow and youth leader, I have experienced first-hand how climate awareness can transform mindsets in classrooms.

For one lesson about waste management, I asked my students if they had seen any dumping sites near their house where waste is openly thrown without proper management. They then took me near those areas and we observed the pattern of waste disposal across sites from a safe distance.

When my students explored local waste management patterns in this way and then identified the impact of the pollutants and organized awareness campaigns, they did not just become learners.

They became leaders for their communities. They started understanding that they had agency to tackle the climate crisis.

Children are both the present and the future. Investing in their awareness and agency is the most sustainable way of ensuring climate resilience, along with investing in the capacity of governments to mitigate the impacts of climate change on children’s lives and education.

If we invest wisely and equitably, we’ll be able to ensure that no child is left behind because of extreme weather and climate events.

Just like in Bangladesh, children in Nigeria are losing access to education as climate impacts worsen. But Lauritta is taking action.

Through her youth-led organization Ecocykle, she’s making climate literacy fun, practical and inclusive, from games and excursions to skills training for underserved youth.

Her work shows how education can shift from climate victimhood to climate leadership.

Lauritta Boniface - Executive Director of Ecocykle, Nigeria and GPE youth leader

Climate change is not just an environmental crisis. It’s a challenge to education.

As the world races against time to reduce emissions and protect vulnerable communities, the hazards keep increasing and in Nigeria, it brews deathly impact.

With the most recent flooding in Mokwa Community displacing over 50,000 people, awareness and education are powerful tools in the fight against climate change and for a sustainable future.

In many parts of Nigeria, climate literacy is still low, particularly among young people who are the most affected but also the most capable of driving change because they make up the majority of Nigeria’s population.

That’s where my organization Ecocykle comes in.

Flooding, deforestation and heatwaves are worsening, but without accessible education to explain and address these changes, communities remain unprepared.

Education empowers young people to understand climate science, recognize its local impacts, innovate solutions through sustainable practices and to advocate for change.

This is why the deep interconnectedness between climate change and education must be seen, and why my project is centering education at the heart of its climate action strategy.

As the Executive Director of Ecocykle, a youth-led climate organization based in Nigeria, I am pioneering an interactive and locally grounded approach to environmental education.

By combining play, learning and practical action, Ecocykle is reaching children and underserved communities with tools that make climate science engaging and empowering.

In 2023, Ecocykle launched our “Play, Learn and Act Now” (PLAN) card game which uses images and solutions to teach climate issues in fun, interactive ways.

We have visual prompts for climate issues (like flooding or waste) matched with solution cards (like afforestation or recycling), and letter/number prompts to enhance problem-solving and language skills.

PLAN is now in 100 schools, expanding across 8 African countries and 3 countries in the rest of the world, and has even been endorsed by Nigeria’s federal government through the Ministry of Environment.

Every World Environment Day since 2023, Ecocykle has also hosted a climate action youth tour in Nigeria’s Benue State where students visit recycling facilities and polluted sites.

These firsthand experiences help students to connect classroom lessons with real-world consequences and community-based solutions, deepening their understanding and steering action.

Through our OYA Recycle initiative, we train youth who are out of school and living in communities with limited resources to turn plastic waste into eco-bricks and marketable products.

This approach makes climate education not just theoretical but practical and life changing.

Climate justice must be inclusive. That’s why our partnership with the YieldUp Development Initiative has designed special climate education programs for students with disabilities.

Using accessible games and interactive tools, these sessions ensure that no one is left out of climate learning and everyone can become a climate leader.

Our work also goes beyond schools by: hosting community capacity building workshops, mentoring young climate advocates through the Climate Innovators Lab, collaborating with local governments on sustainability policy and supporting women and marginalized groups to lead environmental action.

Through this holistic approach, we’re ensuring that environmental education drives awareness as well as lasting, inclusive change.

Climate change is deepening education inequality, but it can also be a catalyst for transformation.

The work of Redwan and Lauritta demonstrates how when youth are empowered with climate education, they lead on solutions.

Governments and donors must support these efforts by investing in climate-resilient schools, training teachers and embedding climate into curricula.

The time to act is now because children are not just the most affected by climate impacts: they are key to a more sustainable future.