Climate Change and Inclusive Education

Perkins is working alongside governments to build resilient, inclusive education systems that ensure no child is left behind when crisis strikes—while preparing children to be voices and leaders of change.

The Situation

Climate change is increasingly disrupting education systems across Southeast Asia, particularly in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where floods, typhoons, extreme heat, and displacement are becoming more frequent.

For children with disabilities, these disruptions have disproportionate and compounding effects. When schools close, infrastructure is damaged, or families are displaced, children with disabilities are often the first to be excluded and the last to return.

Each year, the climate crisis interrupts the education of an estimated 40 million children globally, with 75% of major extreme weather events over the past two decades resulting in school closures. (World Bank, 2024)

Southeast Asia is among the regions most exposed to climate-related hazards globally. According to the World Risk Report 2025, both the Philippines and Indonesia rank among the countries with the highest disaster risk worldwide, with the Philippines ranking first and Indonesia falling within the highest-risk group due to exposure to floods, typhoons, and other extreme events. (Prevention Web, 2025)

Many rely on specialized support, assistive devices, or adapted learning approaches that are not consistently available in crisis or recovery settings. As a result, interruptions to learning are longer, recovery is slower, and the risk of permanent exclusion increases.

What We Are Seeing on the Ground

Perkins works in partnership with governments and schools across the Philippines and Indonesia, reaching thousands of children with disabilities and their families each year. This work contributes to improved access to inclusive education for children across both countries, grounding these insights in direct, ongoing implementation.

Across work with governments, schools, and communities in Indonesia and the Philippines, we are seeing:

• Climate-related disruptions are regularly interrupting learning
• Schools and infrastructure are frequently damaged or repurposed
• Families face economic strain, limiting their ability to prioritize education
• Children with disabilities lose access to structured routines and specialized support
• Education systems are not designed to sustain inclusive learning during disruption

In the Philippines, climate-related events have led to widespread disruption, with up to 85% of schools experiencing closures during the academic year and thousands of classrooms damaged or destroyed. (UNICEF Philippines, 2023)

Angeli’s Story

Angeli, age 7 – Philippines

Angeli is blind and lives in a rural community where climate-related flooding regularly disrupts daily life. Reaching school requires a long and difficult journey—over an hour on foot, followed by multiple forms of transport

When we visited her home, it was still flooded from recent rains. Her family’s livelihood had been severely affected by changing climate conditions, leaving them without stable income.

For Angeli, these disruptions are not temporary. They affect her ability to attend school, access learning, and stay connected to her education.

Her experience reflects a broader reality: when climate shocks disrupt systems, children with disabilities face deeper, longer, and often invisible barriers to learning.

The Gap

Despite increasing global attention to climate and education:

• Climate and education policies rarely include children with disabilities in meaningful ways
• Disaster preparedness plans are not accessible or inclusive
• Teachers and families lack practical strategies to continue learning during disruptions
• Children with disabilities are not included as participants in climate learning or response

Children with disabilities are more likely than their peers to report that their lives have been significantly affected by climate change and environmental damage. (UNICEF, 2021)

This creates a critical gap: climate action and inclusive education are advancing independently, but their intersection remains largely unaddressed.

Children and Youth as Participants in Climate Resilience

Children and youth with disabilities are rarely included as active participants in climate resilience and emergency response planning. They are often considered only in terms of protection or vulnerability, rather than as individuals with perspectives, preferences, and the ability to contribute to solutions.

Yet meaningful inclusion requires that children and youth with disabilities:

• Have access to information in ways they can understand
• Are supported to communicate their needs, experiences, and priorities
• Are included in school-based and community-level preparedness planning
• Are recognized as contributors to building more inclusive and resilient systems

Ensuring that children and youth with disabilities can engage, communicate, and be heard is essential not only for safeguarding their rights, but for designing responses that are effective in practice.

Children with disabilities in low-income countries are projected to experience more than five times the lifetime exposure to extreme weather events compared to earlier generations, reinforcing intergenerational inequality. (Save the Children, 2021)

What Is Needed

To ensure continuity of learning for children with disabilities in climate-affected contexts, education systems must:

• Build resilience into everyday teaching and learning, not only emergency response
• Equip teachers and families with practical, low-resource strategies that can be used across settings
• Ensure accessible learning materials and communication systems
• Develop inclusive disaster preparedness approaches within schools
• Strengthen family and community networks to support learning outside of school
• Enable children and youth with disabilities to participate in and inform climate and education responses

Inclusion must be built into systems before a crisis occurs, so it can be sustained during and after disruption.

Our Approach

Perkins brings a practical, systems-based approach grounded in decades of experience supporting inclusive education in complex and resource-constrained environments:

• Training educators and paraprofessionals in inclusive, adaptable teaching practices
• Supporting families to embed learning into daily routines
• Developing low-cost, accessible learning materials that can be used in both school and home settings
• Working with governments and partners to strengthen inclusive education systems

This approach is already being applied in contexts facing frequent disruption, helping ensure that children with disabilities can continue learning even when systems are under strain.

Opportunity for Action

There is a clear opportunity to address a critical gap at the intersection of climate, education, and disability:

• Integrate disability inclusion into climate-resilient education systems
• Strengthen inclusive early childhood and foundational learning in high-risk areas
• Develop practical models for continuity of learning during disruption
• Support the integration of inclusion into climate and education policy frameworks

Targeted investment in this area would help ensure that children with disabilities are not left further behind as climate-related disruptions increase, and that education systems are better equipped to respond.

Read this article online: https://www.perkins.org/asia-pacific-climate-change-and-inclusive-education/