When the Floodwaters Rise, Classrooms Empty: Nigeria’s Overlooked Climate Education Crisis

Despite the policy of free and compulsory primary education, Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world, with an estimated 10.5 million of the country’s children, aged 5 to 14, not currently enrolled. This figure accounts for about 15 percent of the global out-of school population. The scale of exclusion highlights the fragile state of Nigeria’s education system and points to a deep, persistent crisis in access to basic learning opportunities. Yet as daunting as this reality is, it is being quietly and rapidly intensified by another force: climate change. Across the globe, climate hazards disrupted learning for at least 242 million children in 2024 alone, according to UNICEF. In Sub-Saharan Africa (Fig. 1), Nigeria was among the most affected, with over 2.2 million children facing school interruptions due to floods, a major extreme weather event battering infrastructure, displacing families, and derailing education systems.