January 6, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The United Nations children’s agency is urging the Philippines to make education more climate smart and resilient.
A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report showed the Philippines ranking number two in the region on the Children’s Climate Risk Index.
UNICEF regional director for East Asia and the Pacific June Kunugi said typhoons and heat waves contribute to fewer hours for children in the classroom.
“Looking at other ways to maintain continuity and learning is trying to make education more climate smart and resilient,” Kunugi told The STAR.
According to data from the Department of Education released in November, up to 26 learning days were lost due to class suspensions in several schools nationwide caused by recent typhoons and other natural calamities.
The top Asian countries at risk from climate change, according to a UNICEF report, are Myanmar, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and North Korea.
The UNICEF Children’s Climate Risk Index measures the risk of climate change on children in 163 countries. It considers two main factors – exposure of children to climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses and their vulnerability.
UNICEF also called on the Philippine government to provide better strategic solutions and more investments for more sustained development of data about children.
Although the Philippines has a wealth of data about children, relatively more expansive than many countries, UNICEF said there are still key gaps and issues in terms of granularity, periodicity and timeliness, accessibility, reliability and consistency.
Other key data gaps exist in the areas of disaster risk preparedness, planning and response monitoring; climate change impacts on children; social protection and public financing for children; children with disabilities; early childhood education; children’s civil rights and participation and richer local-level data on children in the provincial, municipal/city and barangay levels.
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