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Pakistan’s
repeated encounters with catastrophic floods are not merely episodic natural
disasters, but systemic shocks that tear at the very fabric of
children’s futures and nowhere is this more evident than in the disruption of
education. In the aftermath of the 2025 monsoon floods, as in previous
calamities, the country is once again witnessing how water’s wrath does more
than destroy infrastructure: it interrupts learning, weakens education
systems, and deepens developmental inequalities.
The scale of
destruction across Pakistan’s educational landscape is staggering. According to
the Government of Pakistan and UNICEF’s flood response data, at least 21,336
schools nationwide were damaged or destroyed in the 2025 floods, affecting
the education of 3.7 million children. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone, more
than 437 schools were directly affected, with many repurposed as temporary
shelters for displaced families. In some districts, schools are not only
physically damaged but have been transformed into living spaces, leaving
classrooms inaccessible for prolonged periods. The disruption is not confined
to buildings. Beyond immediate closures, the psychosocial impact on children
is profound. UNICEF’s rapid needs assessments highlight that the emergency
has inflicted trauma on students, compounding the loss of instructional time
with emotional and mental strains that schools are ill-equipped to address.
Several key
dynamics explain why floods persistently derail education in Pakistan:
• Physical
damage and loss of school infrastructure:
Thousands of classrooms have been rendered unsafe or unusable due to flood
damage, structural cracks, roof collapses, or inundation. Schools intended to
be places of learning now function as makeshift shelters, thereby extending
closures far beyond the immediate storm period.
•
Displacement of students and teachers:
Flood-affected families are often uprooted for weeks or months, with children
and educators alike displaced into relief camps or informal settlements. When
homes and livelihoods are lost, schooling becomes a secondary priority to
survival.
• Lack of
climate-resilient education infrastructure:
Many school buildings in Pakistan were not designed with climate risks in mind.
Weak foundations, poor water drainage, and inadequate maintenance mean that
schools fail early during extreme weather events, a failure that
disproportionately affects rural and low-income areas.
•
Interrupted learning continuity:
Even as some damaged schools are rehabilitated, access to consistent
instruction is severely disrupted. Remote learning remains largely inaccessible
due to weak internet connectivity in flood zones, while emergency learning centres,
though helpful, provide only a fraction of full-day schooling.
The
cumulative consequence is learning loss on a scale that cannot be
underestimated. Children who miss weeks or months of schooling due to flood
closures often struggle to catch up academically; some may never return to
school at all. Evidence from previous flood crises shows that prolonged
educational disruption contributes to rising dropout rates, particularly among
girls and vulnerable populations, who face heightened barriers to re-enrolment
once their families have been displaced or their livelihoods destroyed. Another
critical issue is the repurposing of schools as relief shelters. While
understandable from a humanitarian perspective, this practice effectively
removes education from the relief agenda and prolongs disruption. When tents,
blankets, and IDPs occupy the very buildings meant for learning, the message
sent to communities is that education is expendable in crisis, not essential.
These
disruptions occur against a backdrop of an already fragile education system.
Even before the 2025 floods, Pakistan faced an education emergency with over 26
million children out of school and learning outcomes among the lowest in South
Asia. The floods have not only deepened this crisis but also exposed how
vulnerable the education sector is to climate shocks. Experiences from
provinces like Sindh show that hundreds of thousands of students remain out of
classrooms long after waters recede, not because schools are still underwater,
but because infrastructure and policy responses are insufficiently resilient to
recurring extreme weather. What makes these disruptions particularly troubling
is their long-term impact on children’s development and human capital
formation. When foundational schooling is interrupted repeatedly,
especially at the early childhood and primary levels, cognitive and social
development suffer. The psychological stress of displacement and loss further
compounds these effects, leaving scars that formal schooling alone cannot heal.
To build
forward, Pakistan must integrate education resilience into its disaster
management and development planning. This means investing in climate-resilient
school infrastructure, establishing alternative learning spaces that remain
functional during crises, and prioritizing psychosocial support as part of the
education recovery process. It also requires separating emergency shelter
functions from school premises to protect the continuity of learning, even in
disaster zones.
Ultimately,
floods in Pakistan are not just an environmental calamity; they are a pedagogical
one. When classrooms remain closed, and books remain dry while children’s
futures are washed away with rising waters, the cost is borne by an entire
generation. Protecting education from climate disruption is not optional; it is
central to safeguarding the nation’s human and social development.
By : Abdullah Syyaf
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