Oxfam report denounces lack of preparation of French schools for episodes of extreme heat

The NGO recommends implementing a much more ambitious and effective climate adaptation policy in schools to protect children, who are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures.

Access to education is among the fundamental rights threatened in France by the “state negligence” in terms of adaptation to climate change, according to Oxfam (in PDF). In a report published on Monday, July 15, the NGO warns of the negative effects of the global rise in temperatures on the most vulnerable populations, particularly on schoolchildren. Based on a study by the EcoAct firm, Oxfam reveals that, by 2030, 7,138 nursery schools, with 1.3 million students, could be exposed in class to heat exceeding 35°C.

However, UNICEF believes that “Young children are most vulnerable to heat because their body temperature rises much faster and more sharply than that of adults.“, recalls the Oxfam report. Thus, “Heat waves also affect their ability to concentrate and learn, putting their education at risk.” In these circumstances, insulating school buildings makes it possible to “guarantee the conditions of access to education”, warns the Oxfam report, pointing out the need to design adaptation policies in order to combat inequalities.

In four departments (Bouches-du-Rhône, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris and Gironde), the rate of nursery schools exposed to such temperatures varies between 98% and 100%. by 2030. Oxfam specifies that if “vulnerabilities vary depending on the territories, (…) we can, in certain cases, identify correlations with the territories in which the poverty rate is the highest.” Thus, in Seine-Saint-Denis, where 100% of nursery schools face the risk of extreme heat, schoolchildren are also exposed to an even greater risk, in public spaces or at home, than other populations.

In a France with +4°C, Heatwave days will increase by at least five times, the report continues. This figure, which is not chosen at random, corresponds to the maximum reference warming used by public authorities to consider adaptation by 2100. In the Paris region, this could represent 94 days above 35°C, or a quarter of the year, according to Météo-France projections cited by Oxfam.

Without waiting for 2100, the high temperatures are already forcing the authorities to take measures in the face of temperatures likely to endanger schoolchildren. On June 17, 2022, in the middle of a heat wave, the Ministry of Education announced that students (primary and secondary school students) enrolled in the 12 departments then placed on red heatwave alert could stay at home. In the absence of transformation of the buildings, often old and poorly insulated, the heads of establishments have recommendations from the Ministry of National Education to:“adapt the organization and use of spaces according to exposure in order to accommodate students in spaces protected from the heat”to ensure that blinds and shutters are closed on sunny facades, or if a room is air-conditioned, “use it as a refuge room.”

In Montélimar (Drôme), new class schedules have been tested since June 3, in three schools in the city. School starts and ends earlier: at 3 p.m., half of the students go home, the others are welcomed by the after-school program, in the refectory, the only air-conditioned room in the school.

For several years, town halls have also been working to adapt schools, particularly playgrounds, to these conditions. In the Nantes metropolitan area, for example, by 2026, 30% of schools will have to be asphalted. But adaptation, in schools as elsewhere, requires significant funding and public investment. “conditioned on criteria of efficiency and reduction of inequalities”, writes Oxfam, according to whom “We would need at least several tens of billions of euros per year” to adapt France as a whole to the effects of climate change.

The NGO is also demanding that the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNACC), the country’s adaptation roadmap, “enforceable and binding” in court. For now, this document “is an inventory of general technical measures, sometimes already existing, sometimes very vague, sometimes without visible impact, or which even generate maladaptation”, denounces Oxfam. The NGO castigates “an empty shell without any concrete measures that can be translated into political acts with achievable and ambitious objectives.”

Since the 19th century, the average temperature of the Earth has warmed by 1.1°C. Scientists have established with certainty that this increase is due to human activities, consumers of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This warming, unprecedented in its speed, threatens the future of our societies and biodiversity. But solutions – renewable energies, moderation, reduction of meat consumption – exist. Discover our answers to your questions on the climate crisis.