Schools closed in Bangladesh as heatwave hits

Photo: Munir Uz Zaman Agence France-Presse Students leaving their school on a hot summer day in Dhaka, April 28, 2024.

France Media Agency to Dhaka

Published yesterday at 12:56 p.m.

• Asia

Bangladesh on Monday ordered the closure of schools across the country until Thursday inclusive, due to a persistent heatwave, just a day after they reopened.

High Court judges have passed an order to close “all primary and secondary schools and madrassas [religious schools] until Thursday due to the heatwave”, said to AFP Deputy Attorney General Cheikh Saifuzzaman.

According to the authorities, at least seven people have died due to extreme heat since the beginning of April.

Government medical officer Kazi Abdul Momin said nine students and a teacher were taken to a clinic after feeling unwell.

“They may have felt bad because of the heatwave,” he told AFP.

Temperatures reached over 42°C last week in this country .

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According to the National Weather Service, average maximum temperatures in Dhaka this week were 4-5°C higher than the 30-year average for the same period.

Maximum temperatures in the capital are expected to remain above 40°C until Thursday.

The government had just reopened schools on Sunday after an ordered closure on April 21.

“Keeping schools closed is difficult because children don’t want to study at home,” mother Fatema Tuz Zohor told AFP on Sunday. “But how can they go to school in this heat?”

According to meteorologist Kazi Jebunnesa, rain is expected to bring some respite after Thursday.

Meteorologist Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik said that Bangladesh has not experienced such a heat wave since records began in 1948.

“This is a record in terms of duration and coverage area in the country,” he told AFP, specifying that the scorching temperatures affected about three-quarters of the country.

Mallik said climate change and anthropogenic causes, including rapid urbanization, deforestation, shrinking bodies of water and increased use of air conditioning, were to blame.

“We will see more heat waves this severe in the future,” he said.

The 171 million People in Bangladesh are on the front lines of the global climate crisis, regularly hit by powerful cyclones and more frequent and intense floods.