Camilla H. Chaudhary
Lahore, Pakistan has some of the worst air pollution in the world. Particles in the air from industrial pollution and human activity regularly exceed the World Health Organization’s ‘hazardous’ level. Smog is generated, which disrupts daily life and causes chronic respiratory issues for Lahore’s inhabitants. In winter 2024, the provincial government intermittently closed schools to protect children from the smog. This policy action had varied impacts on different groups of students as my research outlines.
The research
This research outlines the experiences of three Lahore schools. I conducted online interviews with their headteachers, focused on student learning, health, and wellbeing (disaggregated for income, gender, and disability) across the schools.
Learning during and after smog closures
Students’ learning and schools’ ability to teach remotely during smog closures depended on access to technology at home and in school. Starbright, relatively well-resourced and serving higher income families, used Google classroom and Google Meet. All students had devices, such as smartphones or laptops. Moonlight adapted smoothly too, making timetables flexible and focusing on key subjects to limit screen time. Teachers recorded lessons in school and shared them with students and parents via WhatsApp. Sunshine, in contrast, faced major challenges. Most students lacked devices or reliable internet. While the school adjusted timetables and paid for teachers’ internet data packages, remote teaching remained challenging and certain subjects remained untaught.
As a result, students’ experiences were different. Sunshine’s students spent time playing in the streets or went to their villages. When school reopened, students had significant learning gaps. Teachers felt under pressure to help them catch up and ran extra remedial classes. This meant less time for activities like sports, games, and assemblies. This added pressure on students, particularly those who needed extra learning support.
Moonlight prioritises project-based work and continuous assessment that relies on face-to-face learning. Switching to remote learning caused erratic participation. Many students had inadequate access to shared home devices and connectivity issues, and teachers struggled to monitor engagement with cameras off.
“[Our] difficulty was not covering the syllabus but going into deep-down learning” (Ms. Shama). Finding ways to address diverse learning needs, especially for girls who showed greater learning anxiety, created a timetabling challenge.
Interestingly, Ms Mehreen reflected that during smog closures at Starbright, student’s progress depended on their attitude and parental support rather than the device available. “More committed students learnt better”, particularly those regularly emailing teachers for help when needed. While remote lessons covered less content, this was made up when the school reopened, even for middle school students who faced the most learning pressure. Final year students continued scheduled revision sessions and mock exams in preparation for board exams in spring.
Health and wellbeing issues
Headteachers noted another key difference in the physiological impact of smog on students.
Ms Mumtaz said Sunshine’s students were not protected from smog at home. Many lived in small, crowded homes with extended family members, making it impossible to keep windows closed. This meant that children spent time playing outside and breathing polluted air. They returned to school with pulmonary infections – “we had to deal with a lot of coughing and lack of energy” – and anxiety issues. Children from the lowest income groups were most affected, showing stress and fatigue during catch-up lessons. Girls exhibited more symptoms than boys with frequent headaches, dizziness, and vomiting. Middle school students were hit hardest, while younger boys often showed behavioural issues because they remained at home unsupervised while parents worked.
The homes of Moonlight and Starbright students were more sheltering, reducing their climate-related health issues. Ms Shama said many came back “chubbier as they had been sitting at home” and not playing any sports or co-curricular activities, although students in exam years showed exam anxiety. Two students with ADHD displayed irritability when they returned, which she ascribed to being stuck at home. Overall, she felt that her students missed the social aspect and were happy to return to school. Ms Mehreen also felt that students’ mental health had been affected by being stuck at home and timetabled ‘social periods’ when school reopened.
Policy implications
All three headteachers regretted the school closures. They noted that timetable disruptions caused learning loss and anxiety, especially for students’ from low-income families. This highlights the equity impacts of closures; those already at of falling behind faced greater losses. Ms Mumtaz added that staying at home did not protect children from smog. Instead, it increased pressure on parents (generally in blue collar jobs) and led some families to send their children to ancestral villages, where they became further excluded from remote learning.
The headteachers called for more creative state policies that incorporate multi-stakeholder perspectives including from educators and parents. They suggested systems-based solutions such as:
- adapting the school year to account for climate change, allowing better planning.
- increased investment in teacher training for remote teaching.
- ensuring students have access to technology for remote learning.
These recommendations highlight the need to integrate climate and educational policies to anticipate smog-related closures, reduce unplanned disruptions, and address the inequities in how students experience climate reactive policymaking.
Dr. Camilla H. Chaudhary’s research interests sit at the intersection of inclusive education, educational policy, school leadership, climate justice, and decolonial epistemologies. She can be contacted at chc73@cam.ac.uk or on linkedin.com/in/camillahadichaudhary.
The schools (all names have been changed)
Sunshine school (headteacher Ms Mumtaz) caters to low-income communities. It follows the national curriculum, which ends with the state-designed Matriculation exam in Year 10.
Moonlight school (headteacher Ms Shama) is co-educational for low-to-middle income communities. It provides the Matric and Cambridge system (the term used in Pakistan for British curricula).
Starbright school (headteacher Ms Mehreen) provides the Cambridge system for middle-to-high income students, many from landowning families with first generation female learners.
To categorise income, we used indicators such as parents’ jobs (when known), whether students had access to technology for remote learning (and what type), and whether families had private transport to school.