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Rising global temperatures are slowly forcing us to rethink how we design our daily lives.
From the way we build our homes to how we run our public services, old routines are starting to clash with a warmer world, reports BBC.
Too hot to think
Summer has long been a time of dread for students. As heatwaves become more intense, stuffy classrooms and roasting sports halls make it nearly impossible for children to perform at their best.
Now, politicians and climate experts warn that the traditional school calendar might need a drastic rewrite.
Green MP Adrian Ramsay raised the alarm during a parliamentary debate. He argued that the UK must quickly adapt its education system to face our warming planet.
“Our infrastructure in this country is just not set up for the levels of heat we are getting now and we’ve got to recognise… this is a new climate reality,” Ramsay warned.
Shifting the calendar
The MP suggested a simple but massive change. He proposed moving critical exams to a much cooler time of the year.
“Could exams be held at a different point in the year, maybe a couple of months earlier,” Ramsay suggested to BBC Suffolk.
Last year, Baroness Brown, head of the Adaptation for the UK Committee on Climate Change, also called on officials to scrap June exams. She told the BBC that stifling heat ruins student concentration.
A massive task
However, rewriting the school year is easier said than done. School leaders warn that the entire academic calendar is far too rigid.
Dave Lee-Allen of the Suffolk Association of Secondary Headteachers told the BBC that while the idea is good, it would require complete disruption.
“The idea itself has a lot of credibility but you would have to deconstruct the whole system and recalibrate it, in order for the exams to be taken at a different time,” Lee-Allen explained.
Meanwhile, the Department for Education insists it is already working on the problem by rebuilding older schools. According to officials, the government is “taking action to understand the potential impact on all areas of life, including education, so we can prevent disruption to learning.”
Sources: BBC
