The Influence of Climate Change on Education in Sub Saharan Africa

By: Erika Hansen

11/18/20

The global temperature has risen by more than 1℃ in the past century. The rapid ascension of temperatures has caused radical changes in the climate across the world, but the burden is not shared equally. African countries, specifically those located in Sub Saharan Africa, are among the most susceptible areas in the world to the ravages of climate change, despite contributing very little to the overall amount of emissions. Climate change is predicted to cause a rise in temperatures and a decrease in rainfall (generally) across Sub Saharan Africa. Such impacts have already been seen across the region and a major repercussion is decreasing crop yields due to increasing aridity and prolonged droughts. As the climate becomes more unpredictable, it is predicted that malnutrition will increase across the area, as reliably growing enough food to feed one’s family or to produce sufficient profit will become progressively more challenging. Furthermore, there is an indication that malnourished children are less likely to receive a quality education than those who receive nourishing, abundant food. A lack of sufficient nutrition slows brain development in children, hindering the ability to learn, and stunts physical development, altering the perception of authority figures towards a smaller than average child.

This prospect is concerning for many reasons. To illustrate, children who are less educated are less likely to acquire gainful employment and can be a burden on local and national economies. In addition, uneducated constituents are uninformed, can struggle to understand political rhetoric, and a lack of literacy can further impede awareness of the political process. This can severely impact an area or country as citizen’s voices are not accurately represented within government and oppressive leaders gain more control based on this power dynamic. Finally, the next generation of children can suffer, as poorly educated mothers are ignorant of the proper ways to care for children and are less likely to encourage their children to attend school. This results in a feedback loop of poor education within a family, which is probable to progressively exacerbate as the impacts of climate change grow. Ultimately, climate change is leading to lower crop yields and possibly lower educational attainment in Sub Saharan Africa. Under the status quo citizens in the area will continue to experience unfreedoms in the economic and political spheres, especially as the relationship is not understood.

The goal of my research plan is to find the direct influence climate change has on education using geospatial analysis based on two methods developed by other scientists. One method can be used to calculate crop yields around Sub Saharan Africa based on projected climate data using the Aqua-CropOS system. The second analysis used a geographically weighted regression to calculate road density in Fujian Province, China, and the researchers found a positive correlation between economic activity and gross domestic product density (GDPD) when they incorporated socio-economic data in the analysis. Economic activity is acting as a proxy for educational attainment due to the previously discussed economic impacts the lack of education produces. Initially, I will adapt both methods, so that the first can incorporate presently collect data instead of predictions and the second can be applied to Sub Saharan Africa. Next, I will determine which places in Sub Saharan Africa have lower agricultural yields due to climatic variation and which have low road density and resultingly less economic activity. A geographical comparison could reveal whether both phenomena occur in the same areas, indicating a correlation between the two factors. A method to measure literacy levels would add credence to any conclusion regarding this research, but there is little evidence of such a method in the literature. Therefore, I would also initiate a survey type method to collect literacy rates in areas in Nigeria as an initial study. Then, the results of the literacy survey could be compared to evidence of economic activity to determine whether both are accurate measures of low educational attainment. Also, the geographically tied literacy rates could be compared to crop yields in the same areas allow the elucidation of the relationship, or lack thereof, between educational attainment and climate change.