Climate change is poised to reduce academic outcomes by more than five percent, with Queensland students among those at the greatest risk.
A new report found extreme heat was set to reduce the academic attainment of Australian students, which could translate to $73,000 in lost earnings during their lifetime.
Zurich Financial Services Australia Head of General Insurance Alex Morgan said, for the first time, the Zurich-Mandala Climate Risk Index had been used to analyse the risk of climate change to 9829 primary and secondary schools across Australia.
Mr Morgan said extreme heat was projected to reduce writing, spelling, grammar & punctuation, and numeracy by over seven percent in some parts of the country by 2060, with students in the Northern Territory and Queensland disproportionately impacted.
He said two-thirds of schools in Australia currently faced high climate risk.
“This is set to increase to 84 percent of schools by 2060 under an intermediate climate scenario with 2 degrees Celsius of warming.”
Mr Morgan said Australian students were projected to experience 34 annual heatwave days by 2060.
He said New South Wales and Queensland had the highest volume of schools at risk with 92 percent and 91 percent respectively in the highest three risk categories, with the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory following closely behind.
“Disadvantaged schools face higher climate risk with 80 percent of schools in low Socio-Educational Advantage percentiles facing significant climate risk, compared with around 60 percent of schools with high advantage levels.
“Of the 10 most at-risk schools in Australia, most are government schools with low Socio-Educational Advantage facing high bushfire and flood risk.”
Mr Morgan said, nationally, increased chances of bushfire and hail posed the greatest climate risk to Australia’s schools, but there was considerable variation based on location with inland schools facing greater risk than those on the coast.
“Key social infrastructure, such as Australia’s schools, which currently support the development of more than four million children, have repeatedly suffered the consequences of our changing climate, resulting in reduced capacity to effectively teach and learn.
“Quantifying how climate change could alter Australia’s education system underlines the importance of building the resilience of Australian schools to reduce the significant impacts on children’s academic attainment, future employment and wage outcomes and broader disparities in socio-educational advantage.”
Download: The Impact of Climate Change on Australia’s Schools The Zurich-Mandala Climate Risk Index
