More than 118 million children had their schooling interrupted in April alone, UNICEF said, as large parts of the Middle East and Asia, from Gaza in the west to the Philippines in the southeast, experienced a sizzling weekslong heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius.

Extreme weather caused significant disruptions to education worldwide in 2024, with around 242 million students in 85 countries missing lessons due to heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

At least 242 million children across 85 countries faced disruptions in their education due to extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cyclones, and flooding last year, according to a recent report from the United Nations Children's Fund.

"Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat."

A new UNICEF report finds that heat waves, cyclones, floods and storms impacted education most severely in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan and the Philippines. Flooding interrupted schooling for Tawhida,