As students swelter through back-to-school heatwaves, parents and teachers worry for the future

Marji Puotinen and her boys help teach children about the climate and environment in schools around Australia, dressed up as characters. (Supplied: Marji Puotinen )

Severe heatwave conditions around the country throughout February have seen students swelter through their first weeks of school, sparking calls for the government to properly address rising temperatures in classrooms.

February saw heatwave conditions impact parts of Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales, with students forced to endure some of the highest temperatures in the past week.

Hot weather policies vary across the country’s public schools and are often dependent on the budget and infrastructure available to the administration.

Some require children to be kept home after the mercury reaches over 40 degrees on a prescribed number of days, while others require students to stay inside their classrooms and not play outside during recess and lunch breaks.

The varying policies have sparked concern about their effectiveness around the country.

Parents grapple with rising temperatures

Perth parent and climate change campaigner Marji Puotinen has three children, and said this year’s weather had been particularly trying on her two youngest.

“It’s definitely something that’s affected them,” she said.

Ms Puotinen said her two boys recently transitioned from primary school to high school, which coincided with the city’s most recent heatwaves.

She said going from having teachers police their time out in the heat to having personal responsibility in high school was a big step for her children.

“My son is in the soccer program at school … in fact, I had to go and pick him up the other week because he went out to run around on the pitch and get got some mild heat stroke because it was around 38 degrees,” Ms Puotinen said.

It’s a concern that has been echoed around parenting circles, with some who have younger children opting to keep their kids home during this month’s searing temperatures.

State School Teachers Union WA president Matt Jarman said recent weather had exposed flaws in public school architecture, including ventilation and air-conditioning problems.

“School should be a place where students can comfortably come to learn,” he said.

“If parents feel that the school is not comfortable, and that the school is not equipped to be able to manage that extreme weather, then the school needs to have improvements made and that is a government responsibility.

“We’re hearing of classroom teachers who are turning off their evaporative air conditioners, because they’re just so noisy and they’re not allowing them to give instructions [to the students].

“The evaporative air conditioning units are quite problematic. In many, many schools they are very old.”

The past few weeks have also exposed the ad-hoc approach to heat policies, Mr Jarman said.

“We do need to see more of a sophisticated and coordinated approach from government to say to the schools, ‘this is what we’d like you to be guided by in terms of keeping visitors, students and staff safe when it is extreme weather,” he said.

Heatwaves only the beginning

Ms Puotinen said the most concerning thing about the recent forecast was how extreme temperatures were expected to become the new norm.

She says when the government determines how much it will spend on public schools next year, it should consider the benefits of installing solar power and battery storage in public schools as a back-up solution.

“There’s a real potential to improve learning outcomes by making sure that schools if they have solar and battery backup, so that they don’t have to worry about their power supply or paying for it … studies have shown that learning outcomes actually decline with the amount of extra temperature that kids have to cope with,” Ms Puotinen said.

Mr Jarman said the recent frequency of extreme weather events in places such as NSW, SA, WA and Queensland should motivate governments to act.

“The School Teacher’s Union has a Climate Action Group, which is all about learning environment and workplace,” he said.

“It is timely for us to advocate to the government using these most recent pretty extreme weather events, to say to government, let’s get on with it.”

Varying experiences around the country

Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare said he heard the concerns from the union and parents.

“The Albanese government is investing in public schools through the Schools Upgrade Fund,” he said.

“From upgrading art rooms and tech rooms to new outdoor equipment and installing air conditioning, this funding will deliver upgrades to public schools that need it the most.”

In South Australia, 120 schools have already accessed the fund for new air conditioning and better ventilation.

In Queensland the Department of Education is working to replace aging infrastructure to better cool classrooms, and in WA, Department of Education director-general Lisa Rodgers said schools had appropriate measures in place to deal with the impact of hot weather.

“We do everything we can to keep schools open, but when there is an extreme fire danger alert issued by DFES and BOM, schools are pre-emptively closed,” she said.

In New South Wales, meant more than 300 schools were without air-conditioning and were relying on their school maintenance budgets to fill the gap.

The Australian Education Union was contacted for comment.