A repaired classroom does not automatically recover the lessons lost while it was closed. Climate damage to education has both a physical cost and a learning cost, and counting only roofs and walls understates what children need afterwards.
UNICEF’s 2026 assessment of Eastern and Southern Africa estimates direct education losses of about US$1.3 billion over 2005–2024. Approximately US$0.2 billion was documented and US$1.1 billion modelled, an important distinction in the strength and coverage of the evidence.
The report also estimates that climate events cumulatively disrupted the education of around 130 million children. This is a measure spanning two decades, not a claim that 130 million children are currently out of school.
Its projected lifetime earnings losses of US$120–140 billion belong to another category again. They are model-based estimates of future consequences, not money already withdrawn from education budgets or household accounts.
The practical implication is that a reconstruction contract should not be the whole recovery programme. Schools may also need replacement learning materials, a revised teaching timetable and support for pupils who return at different stages.
Location deserves attention before another building is erected. Repeating an exposed design at the same vulnerable site can recreate the original risk even when construction meets the immediate deadline.
Recovery should also ask who has not returned. A reopened gate can coexist with continued exclusion if transport, household income or displacement keeps some pupils away. Attendance is therefore a more revealing measure than reopening alone.
The report makes a case for linking resilient infrastructure with learning recovery. Protecting the next school year requires more than restoring what was there; it requires understanding how the interruption changed children’s ability to continue.