Bangladesh reopens schools even as heatwave alert extended by three days

Average maximum temperatures in Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius higher than the 30-year average.

Millions of students have returned to their schools across Bangladesh despite a heatwave that prompted a nationwide classroom shutdown last weekend.

The reopening of schools on Sunday came as the authorities issued another heatwave alert for three more days as the South Asian country faces its longest heatwave in 75 years.

The heatwave reached a 29th day on Sunday, the longest since the government started keeping records in 1948, said meteorologist Shaheenul Islam.

The season’s highest temperature at 42.7 degrees Celsius was recorded in the southwestern district of Chuadanga on Friday.

Capital Dhaka’s maximum temperature was 38.2 degrees that day, according to the meteorological data. The average maximum temperatures in Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2-9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period.

Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

Classes resumed on Sunday with anxious relatives accompanying their children to school gates for the start of classes in Bangladesh, which follows the Sunday-Thursday Islamic work week.

“I went to the school with my 13-year-old daughter. She was happy her school was open. But I was tense,” said Lucky Begum, whose daughter is enrolled at a state-run school in Dhaka.

“The heat is too much,” she told the AFP news agency. “She already got heat rashes from sweating. I hope she does not get sick.”

About 32 million students were kept at home by the school shutdown, Save the Children said in a statement this week.

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