At least 242 million students in 85 countries had their schooling disrupted by extreme climate events in 2024, including heatwaves, tropical cyclones, storms, floods, and droughts, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said on Friday.

Education in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan and the Philippines was most severely affected by heatwaves, cyclones, floods and storms, UNICEF said in a statement.

“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Children’s bodies are uniquely vulnerable. They heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults.”

“Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded, or if schools are washed away. Last year, severe weather kept one in seven students out of class, threatening their health and safety, and impacting their long-term education.”

in Afghanistan, in addition to heatwaves, the country experienced severe flash floods that damaged or destroyed over 110 schools in May, disrupting education for thousands of students, UNICEF said.

South Asia was the most affected region with 128 million students facing climate-related school disruptions last year, according to UNICEF.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in a statement on the occasion of the International Day of Education, has criticized the restrictions on girls' education in the country, saying no country has thrived by leaving behind half its population.

UNAMA noted in the statement that it has been 1,225 days since the Islamic Emirate imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade.

“It is a travesty and tragedy that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education. No country has ever thrived by disempowering and leaving behind half its population. The de facto authorities must end this ban immediately and allow all Afghan girls to return to school,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA.

The International Day of Education, celebrated annually on January 24, underscores education’s critical role in achieving peace, development, and equality.

The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly stressed that restrictions on girls' education are an internal Afghan issue and foreigners should not interfere.

Germany is working hard to deport more Afghan criminals, said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in Berlin on Thursday, a day after an Afghan asylum seeker was arrested for a deadly knife attack.

"We are the only country in Europe to have deported serious criminals back to Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban rule. And I would like to make it very clear that we are working hard to deport further criminals to Afghanistan," said Faeser.

The interior minister also took aim at the EU's Dublin rules, under which someone's asylum application has to be processed in their first country of arrival.

The suspected attacker in the southern German city of Aschaffenburg had come to Germany via Bulgaria.

"We are already seeing once again that the Dublin system no longer works," said Faeser.