Health Consequences of Climate Change on Education and Sustainable Development

Education is a catalyst for the development of every country hence the need for quality education of the youths who shall become leaders of tomorrow. When students’ health is threatened by the immediate and long term impacts of climate change, their education is undermined, as such the sustainable development strides of the nation becomes compromised. Nations are vulnerable to climate change impacts given the vagaries of climate conditions they experience. The present study investigated the health consequences of climate change on secondary school students in Ebonyi State. Following a descriptive survey design, 400 Senior Secondary School two (SS11) students were randomly sampled out of 8,376 students in Onueke Educational Zone, Ebonyi State, South-Eastern Nigeria. An adapted instrument with a reliability coefficient of 0.87 was used for this study. Responses were tabulated and categorized using descriptive statistics while hypotheses were tested at p < 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that changing rainfall patterns, drought and high temperature impact negatively on their health causing serious health challenges like lack of concentration in the class, sleeping disorder and sicknesses resulting from bacterial infection, etc. Based on the findings, it is recommended that school authorities should organize workshops on effective coping strategies to address climate change. Tree planting and other environmental programmes should be instituted to involve students in practical community-based response to climate change.