What is the context?
Education is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of social and economic development. It underpins all the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4 on inclusive, equitable quality education. Climate change is increasingly undermining these ambitions by disrupting education systems, restricting access and worsening learning outcomes. Climate-related hazards and recurring crises reduce access to education and widen inequalities . These impacts disproportionately affect marginalised learners, including children in rural and low-income communities, girls and learners with disabilities. During emergencies, these groups face heightened risks of school disruption, learning loss and permanent dropout, deepening inequalities and long-term development setbacks , .
Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate risks, ranking among the most affected countries globally, with floods, extreme heat and air pollution causing repeated disruptions to schooling. While Pakistan has frameworks to strengthen climate resilience in education, including the comprehensive risk assessment tool included in the Pakistan School Safety Framework (PSSF), implementation of it remains limited and fragmented. Climate and disaster risk considerations are often weakly integrated into education planning and there is little evidence of systematic, school-level risk assessment in practice. To address this gap, this action-oriented implementation research collaboratively contextualised UNESCO’s and Viet Nam Ministry of Education and Training’s assessment and preparedness toolkit and piloted the newly adapted ‘Climate Risk Assessment Tool’ (CRSAT) in Pakistani schools generating evidence on the process of implementing the adapted CRSAT, its feasibility, scalability, and the policy and institutional changes needed to strengthen climate resilience across the education system.
CRSAT is a simplified and participatory school-level tool with step-by-step guidance for the facilitation process that helps school communities identify and assess climate-and disaster-related risks affecting learning, safety and education continuity. UNESCO-Viet Nam tool was selected for contextualisation because it is explicitly designed for school-level use, grounded in the INEE Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies and the Comprehensive School Safety Framework. The PSSF is the national adaptation of the CSSF and while it provides strong policy guidance and standardised benchmarks, its risk assessment tool is more technical and structured, and primarily intended for use by trained evaluators. CRSAT offers a simpler, step-by-step approach that enables teachers, students, parents and community members to participate directly in risk assessment, making it more accessible for routine use across all types of schools in Pakistan.
CRSAT generates practical school-level risk data, including qualitative, quantitative and visual information that supports both local planning and system-level decision-making. Through guided discussions and simple mapping activities, schools identify key hazards, build a historical profile and seasonal calendar for different hazards, assess vulnerabilities affecting different learners, and document preparedness gaps. At school level, this helps prioritise safety and preparedness actions. When combined across schools, CRSAT data highlights patterns of risk and capacity gaps across schools, districts and provinces and supports education authorities to strengthen PSSF implementation and operationalise its risk assessment.
What did we learn?
● Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate risks, yet school-level climate and disaster risk assessment is rare. The Climate Risk Assessment Tool (CRSAT) lets teachers, students, and parents assess their own school’s climate risks directly while also highlighting risk patterns and capacity gaps across schools, districts and provinces. This will support institutionalisation of the Pakistan School Safety Framework (PSSF) and build climate resilience of schools.
● Climate risks to schools are multiple, localised, and cyclical but their impact does not affect all students equally. Girls, children with disabilities, and students from low-income households face more severe and prolonged disruptions.
● Schools face structural vulnerabilities (like unsafe buildings, missing boundary walls, inadequate WASH facilities) and lack emergency preparedness and formal disaster-management structures. They cope through strong informal networks and teacher knowledge, but without institutional backing, their preparedness remains fragile and inconsistent, and may even be lost entirely if a teacher is transferred.
● The pilot found CRSAT to be feasible, low-cost, and valued by school communities. Its step-by-step design helped schools move from vague risk awareness to concrete, prioritised action plans. However, this valuable school-level data is currently not linked to any planning, budgeting, or monitoring systems, meaning it is not yet informing decisions beyond the school gate.
● Institutionalising CRSAT (integrating it into Education Sector Plans and school budgets) alongside stronger coordination between education and disaster-management authorities, can help operationalise the PSSF at scale. This should include establishing School Safety Committees with inclusive membership and clear local ownership of risk assessment and response.
● School-level risk data should feed into Education Management Information Systems to inform evidence-based, disability-inclusive investment decisions. For this, sustained capacity-building is needed, which includes training school staff and communities in risk assessment on an ongoing basis, rather than treating it as a one-off exercise.
How did we learn this?
The research used a participatory, mixed-methods implementation research approach, grounded in implementation science and delivered in three phases:
1. Desk review and contextualisation, including alignment analysis between the PSSF and the UNESCO/Viet Nam toolkit and iterative stakeholder review.
2. Piloting of CRSAT, using participatory risk assessment, GIS mapping, photovoice and focused group discussions with school-community risk assessment teams.
3. Findings validation and tool refinement, through stakeholder workshops involving education authorities, disaster management agencies, civil society organisations and organisations of people with disabilities.
The adapted CRSAT was piloted across 18 schools in Islamabad Capital Territory, Punjab and Sindh, covering urban, rural and special education settings. Of these, nine were girls’ schools, seven were boys’ schools and two were co-education special education schools. Schools were selected based on predefined criteria, including geographic diversity, frequency of disaster occurrence in the area, school type (mainstream or special education), school level (Grade 8 and above), willingness to participate and their prior engagement in the DARE-RC study. The pilot focused on Grade 8 and above to support meaningful participation in group discussion and mapping activities. The sample size is driven by the primary objective of the pilot study and has generated evidence that provides a credible foundation for further investigation.
Each participating school established a Climate Risk Assessment team of 10–12 members, comprising head teachers, students, parents, community members and local officials. In total, 216 participants engaged in the assessment process. The approach prioritised inclusion, with deliberate efforts to include girls, children with disabilities and marginalised groups in discussion and mapping exercises.
Data was analysed using thematic analysis and descriptive methods, guided by a three-domain risk framework (hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities). Spatial and visual data (maps and photographs) were triangulated with qualitative narratives to strengthen interpretation and validity. While the tool was piloted in a selected group of schools, its design and participatory approach are applicable across all levels of education, including primary schools, as well as government, private and madrasa (religious) schools. CRSAT is appropriate for wider use as a scalable, accessible and contextually adaptable tool to support all school-level risk assessment.
