（双语文稿）炎热天气对教育的影响

Hena Khan is a ninth-grade student in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She struggled to keep attention on her studies last week as temperatures rose above 43 degrees Celsius in Bangladesh's capital.
赫纳•汗(Hena Khan)是孟加拉达卡的一名九年级学生。上周，孟加拉首都的气温升至43摄氏度以上，她依然努力把注意力集中在学业上。
"There is no real education in schools in this punishing heat," she said. "Teachers can't teach, students can't concentrate. Rather, our lives are at risk."
“在这种酷热的天气里，学校里没有真正的教育，”她说。“老师无法教书，学生无法集中注意力。相反，我们的生命处于危险之中。”
Khan is one of more than 40 million students who have been shut out of classrooms in recent weeks. Heatwaves have forced school closures in parts of Asia and North Africa. As the climate warms due to the burning of fossil fuels, heatwaves are lasting longer and reaching higher temperatures.
汗是最近几周被迫离开教室的4000多万名学生之一。热浪迫使亚洲和北非部分地区的学校关闭。由于燃烧化石燃料，气候在变暖，热浪持续时间更长，温度更高。
Government officials and public health experts across the world are increasingly struggling with whether to keep students learning in hot classrooms.
世界各地的政府官员和公共卫生专家越来越纠结于是否要让学生在炎热的教室里学习。
Either decision has impacts. About 17 percent of the world's school-aged children are already out of school, says the United Nations. But the proportion is much larger in developing countries.
无论做什么决定都会造成影响。联合国表示，世界上大约17%的学龄儿童已经失学。但这一比例在发展中国家要大得多。
Test scores in the developing world are also behind developed countries.
发展中国家的考试成绩也落后于发达国家。
Heat could worsen inequalities by widening learning gaps between wealthy countries and poor nations in the tropics, experts told Reuters. It could even worsen inequalities between rich and poor areas in wealthy countries. Sending children to hot schools can also make them sick.
专家告诉路透社，高温可能会扩大热带富裕国家和贫穷国家之间的学习差距，从而加剧不平等。它甚至可能加剧富裕国家贫富地区之间的不平等。把孩子送到酷热学校也会让他们生病。
Earlier this spring, heat-related school closures in South Sudan affected over 2 million students. Temperatures rose to 45 degrees Celsius there in late March. Thousands of schools in the Philippines and in India closed schools in late April, impacting more than 10 million students.
今年春天早些时候，在南苏丹因高温而关闭了学校，这影响了200多万名学生。3月下旬，那里的气温升至45摄氏度。4月下旬，菲律宾和印度的数千所学校关闭，影响了1000多万学生。
Last week, Cambodia ordered all public schools to cut two hours off the school day to avoid the peak heat at midday.
上周，柬埔寨下令所有公立学校将上课时间缩短两小时，以避免正午的高温。
Bangladesh has debated whether to close schools for about 33 million students. Temperatures there are rising to dangerous levels.
孟加拉就是否关闭大约有3300万学生的学校进行了辩论。那里的气温上升到了危险的水平。
Many Bangladeshi schools "don't have fans, the ventilation is not good, and they... (do) not provide good insulation," said Shumon Sengupta. He is Bangladesh country director for the nonprofit organization Save the Children.
舒门˙森古普塔说，许多孟加拉国学校“没有风扇，通风不好，而且它们……绝缘不好。”他是非营利组织救助儿童会(Save the Children)在孟加拉的负责人。
Even if students continue attending classes during heatwaves, their education is likely to suffer. High temperatures slow down the brain's functions, lowering students' ability to remember and process information.
即使学生在热浪中继续上课，他们的教育也可能受到影响。高温会减弱大脑的功能，降低学生记忆和处理信息的能力。
A 2020 study found that American high schoolers performed worse on standardized tests if they were exposed to higher temperatures in the year leading up to the exam.
2020年的一项研究发现，如果美国高中生在考试前一年暴露在较高的温度下，他们在标准化考试中的表现会更差。
The research was published in the American Economic Journal. It found that a .55 Celsius degree warmer school year reduced that year's learning by 1 percent. Schools with air conditioning did not feel those same effects, said study co-writer Josh Goodman. He is an economist at Boston University.
这项研究发表在《美国经济杂志》上。研究发现，学年温度每升高0.55摄氏度，当年的学习成绩就会下降1%。研究报告的合著者乔什•古德曼是波士顿大学的经济学家，他说，有空调的学校没有感受到同样的影响。
Goodman and his research partners found similar learning results tied to heat when they looked at standardized test data in other countries. "When (students in) these places experience a year with more heat, they appear to have learned less," he said.
古德曼和他的研究伙伴在研究其它国家的标准化测试数据时发现，类似的学习结果与温度有关。他说:“当这些地方的学生经历一年的高温时，他们似乎学得更少。”
Other research suggests high heat in the tropics can also impact a child's education even before birth.
其它研究表明，热带地区的高温甚至会影响孩子出生前的教育。
Children in Southeast Asia exposed to higher-than-average temperatures in utero and early in life received fewer years of schooling later in life. That information comes from a 2019 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
东南亚儿童在子宫内和生命早期就暴露在高于平均温度的环境中，他们在以后的生活中接受教育的时间将更少。这一信息来自2019年《美国国家科学院院刊》上的一项研究。
Goodman said as the world warms, already hot countries that become extremely hot countries will suffer more than cooler countries. "Climate change will widen the learning gaps between hot and cool countries," Goodman said.
古德曼说，随着全球变暖，已经非常炎热的国家将比气候较凉爽的国家遭受的损失更大。古德曼说:“气候变化将扩大炎热国家和凉爽国家之间的学习差距。”
Some developed countries are trying to find solutions to the issue.
一些发达国家正在努力寻找解决这一问题的办法。
In March, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced it would build 30 heat-resilient schools in Jordan by 2026, a USAID spokesperson said. Heat-resilient buildings can remain comparatively cool in very hot weather.
今年3月，美国国际开发署(USAID)的一位发言人说，该机构宣布，到2026年将在约旦建造30所耐热学校。耐热建筑在非常炎热的天气里可以保持相对凉爽。
USAID said it would spend $8.17 million on the schools. The schools would have special cooling systems and air conditioning.
美国国际开发署表示，将为这些学校投入817万美元。学校将有特殊的冷却系统和空调。
The number of days that schools are closed for extreme heat has been increasing in the United States. Few countries record such data.
在美国，学校因极端高温而停课的天数一直在增加。很少有国家记录这样的数据。
In Bangladesh last year, schools were closed for 6 to 7 days, said Save the Children's Sengupta. "But this year, they are saying it might be closed for 3 to 4 weeks," he said.
救助儿童会的森古普塔说，去年在孟加拉国，学校关闭了6到7天，“但今年，他们说可能会关闭3到4周。”
May is often the hottest month in South Asia.
五月通常是南亚最热的月份。
I'm Dan Novak.