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Bangkok Air Pollution Forces 352 Schools to Close

Air pollution in the Thai capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools Friday -- around a hundred more than the previous day. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
Air pollution in the Thai capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools Friday -- around a hundred more than the previous day. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
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Bangkok Air Pollution Forces 352 Schools to Close

Air pollution in the Thai capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools Friday -- around a hundred more than the previous day. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
Air pollution in the Thai capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools Friday -- around a hundred more than the previous day. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP

Air pollution in the Thai capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools on Friday, city authorities said, the highest number in five years.

Bangkok officials announced free public transport for a week in a bid to reduce traffic in a city notorious for noxious exhaust fumes.

Seasonal air pollution has long afflicted Thailand, like many countries in the region, but this week's hazy conditions have shuttered the most schools since 2020, said AFP.

"Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has closed 352 schools across 31 districts due to air pollution," the authority said in a message shared on its official LINE group.

On Thursday, more than 250 schools in Bangkok were closed due to pollution, as officials urged people to work from home and restricted heavy vehicles in the city.

Air pollution hits the Southeast Asian nation seasonally, as colder, stagnant winter air combines with smoke from crop stubble burning and car fumes.

By Friday, the level of PM2.5 pollutants -- cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- hit 108 micrograms per cubic meter, according to IQAir.

The reading makes the Thai capital the world's seventh-most polluted major city currently.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 24-hour average exposures should not be more than 15 for most days of the year.

By Friday morning, 352 of the 437 schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority had shut their doors, affecting thousands of students.

Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Thursday ordered a ban on stubble burning -- intentionally burning leftover crops to clear fields -- with those responsible risking legal prosecution.

In another bid to curb pollution, a government minister said Friday that public transport in Bangkok would be free for a week.

The capital's Skytrain, metro, light rail system and bus services will be free to users from Saturday, transport minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit told reporters.

"We hope this policy will help reduce pollution."

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who is currently attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, called for tougher measures to tackle pollution on Thursday, including limiting construction in the capital and seeking cooperation from nearby countries.

Regional problem

Cities in neighboring Vietnam and Cambodia also ranked high on IQAir's most-polluted list on Friday, with Ho Chi Minh second and Phnom Penh fifth.

Cambodia's environment ministry confirmed on Friday that the air quality in Phnom Penh and three other provinces had reached a "red level", meaning highly polluted.

The ministry said in a statement that the air pollution was caused by climate change, waste incineration and forest fires, and urged the public to monitor their health and avoid outdoor activities.

Air pollution has closed schools across other parts of Asia recently -- specifically Pakistan and India

Nearly two million students in and around New Delhi were told to stay home in November after authorities ordered schools to shut because of worsening air pollution.

Pakistan's most populated province of Punjab in November closed schools in smog-hit major cities for two weeks, with thousands hospitalized as air pollutants hit 30 times the level deemed acceptable by the WHO.

Bangkok's school closures come as UNICEF said in a report that 242 million children's schooling was affected by climate shocks in 2024.

Climate change can worsen the problem of air pollution which is considered a "secondary impact of climate-induced hazards", according to the report published Friday.

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Nearly 250 Million Children Missed School Last Year Because of Extreme Weather, UNICEF Says 

Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
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Nearly 250 Million Children Missed School Last Year Because of Extreme Weather, UNICEF Says 

Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)

At least 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling interrupted last year because of heatwaves, cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a new report Friday.

UNICEF said it amounted to one in seven school-going children across the world being kept out of class at some point in 2024 because of climate hazards.

The report also outlined how some countries saw hundreds of their schools destroyed by weather, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa hit especially hard.

But other regions weren't spared the extreme weather, as torrential rains and floods in Italy near the end of the year disrupted school for more than 900,000 children. Thousands had their classes halted after catastrophic flooding in Spain.

While southern Europe dealt with deadly floods and Asia and Africa had flooding and cyclones, heatwaves were “the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year,” UNICEF said, as the earth recorded its hottest year ever.

More than 118 million children had their schooling interrupted in April alone, UNICEF said, as large parts of the Middle East and Asia, from Gaza in the west to the Philippines in the southeast, experienced a sizzling weekslong heatwave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. “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."

Around 74% of the children affected in 2024 were in middle- and low-income countries, showing how climatic extremes continue to have a devastating impact in the poorest countries. Flooding ruined more than 400 schools in Pakistan in April. Afghanistan had heatwaves followed by severe flooding that destroyed over 110 schools in May, UNICEF said.

Months of drought in southern Africa exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon threatened the schooling and futures of millions of children.

And the crises showed little sign of abating. The poor French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa was left in ruins by Cyclone Chido in December and hit again by Tropical Storm Dikeledi this month, leaving children across the islands out of school for six weeks.

Cyclone Chido also destroyed more than 330 schools and three regional education departments in Mozambique on the African mainland, where access to education is already a deep problem.

UNICEF said the world's schools and education systems “are largely ill-equipped” to deal with the effects of extreme weather.