Education leaders call for increased investment in Pacific education systems

Education leaders, development partners and technical agencies have called for stronger finance investment to help Pacific schools become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The calls came during a three-day Climate Smart Education Systems Initiative workshop in Nadi, Fiji. Wayne Mendiola, the Pacific Head of Education Systems Chair emphasised the need for coordination, continued integration of climate into education priorities, planning, adequate resourcing and technical assistance to access climate finance in the education sector.

“Pacific leaders, we know that climate change is not a distant or abstract challenge,” he said. “For us, it is a lived reality. Rising seas, stronger cyclones, floods, droughts, and heat are already disrupting our schools, our teachers, and our learners. These impacts threaten not only infrastructure, but also learning continuity, student wellbeing, and hard‑won education gains.”

The Pacific is one of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions, where extreme weather events continue to disrupt learning, damage school infrastructure, and threaten children’s right to safe, continuous education. Schools across the region are already experiencing the impacts of cyclones, floods, sea level rise and heatwaves, risks that are projected to intensify.

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