The hidden cost of pollution on children’s education in India

Pollution is silently undermining educational outcomes for millions of children across India. From toxic air, to contaminated water, to relentless urban noise, new evidence shows how various forms of environmental pollution are eroding children’s ability to learn and thrive. This blog explores emerging research on these hidden costs and argues that pathways to tackling pollution must be central to any education policy agenda.

In the winter of 2024, all primary schools in Delhi were forced to close due to hazardous air quality levels. For several weeks, the Air Quality Index (AQI) stayed at dangerous levels, far above safety thresholds.

Despite growing concern about harmful emissions, there is limited research on how pollution affects education, especially in developing countries. India has 17 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, with air quality nearly ten times worse than the WHO guidelines. Thermal power plants, pollution from vehicles, industrial emissions, and the burning of crop residue, as well as kerosene and biomass, are some of the main causes of air pollution in India.

Water pollution is also a major concern. Data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) show that over 60% of monitored river stretches in India are polluted. The main contaminants include fecal coliform, nitrates, and industrial waste. These environmental risks mainly affect vulnerable groups, especially children. They increase the likelihood of disease, hinder physical and cognitive growth, and limit the development of human potential.

India has a near-perfect enrollment rate at the primary levels. However, the Annual Status of Education Report (2024) states that only about 23% of Standard III (ages 7–8) students in government schools could read Standard II level (ages 6–7) text, and only 45.8% of Standard VIII (ages 13–14) students could solve basic arithmetic problems. This is due to several factors, such as poor foundational skills, teaching that doesn’t match students’ actual learning levels, large class sizes, and limited teacher training. Then there is environmental pollution, a factor often overlooked by policymakers.

Research from 2023 demonstrates that short-term exposure to air pollution substantially reduces children’s mathematics and reading skills. On polluted days with higher levels of fine particulate matter, test scores fall, particularly among lower-grade students and struggling pupils. This matches evidence from neuroscience and health economics, which suggests that air pollution can decrease attention, memory, and executive function—all of which are essential for learning.

Another recent study examining data from 39 districts in the Ganges Basin, where tens of millions depend on the river for their daily needs, shows that poor-quality water is also undermining education among children. This study finds that drinking water containing fecal coliform significantly reduces reading, writing, and mathematics scores, irrespective of economic class.

This link between pollution and lower school performance remains strong even after accounting for differences in family background, school quality, and health conditions. Exposure to contaminated water also increases the incidence of diarrheal disease, malnutrition, and cognitive impairment, meaning children may miss school days, face difficulty concentrating, or suffer developmental delays due to chronic health burdens.

In India’s rapidly growing cities, building and traffic noise pollution is also eroding learning potential. Excessive noise drastically impacts the outcome of examinations and raises failure rates for older boys in particular. As cities grow, mitigating this issue is increasingly urgent for supporting educational outcomes in India’s urban centers.

What can policymakers do?

Build environmental monitoring into education planning

Educational infrastructure must be informed by data on environmental exposure. For example, embedding environmental indicators such as water quality data into education planning can help identify where children face a double disadvantage: poor health and lower academic performance.

In essence, education policy in India needs to become ‘environment-focused’. This is not possible without better monitoring. Beyond awareness efforts and curricular coverage, no large-scale programs currently assess school cleanliness or the health of students and teachers as explicit goals.

Researchers and policymakers often analyze issues like absenteeism and underperformance through socio-economic factors, overlooking the role of school environmental quality. The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) could use its existing framework to include indicators such as air quality, water supply functionality, hygiene, ventilation, and indoor temperature.

Strengthen health-environment-education linkages

In theory, school health programs that combine sanitation, clean water, and environmental risk mapping can reduce disease and boost both attendance and performance. In particular, improvements to schools’ water, sanitation and hygiene (or WASH) conditions can make a massive difference to learning outcomes.

Around the world, countries that have expanded school-based WASH programs have seen benefits in attendance, health, and learning outcomes. For example, a Nepalese qualitative case study shows that inadequate WASH, especially for menstrual hygiene, directly contributed to increased absenteeism and lower academic performance.

Scaling up WASH interventions in schools is a clear step in the right direction, and India’s pollution-prone areas are not without their own success stories. In some schools, overall cleanliness is rewarded, creating incentives for scaling up.

Close the data and research gap

Education data systems rarely account for the environments in which children learn, and environmental monitoring seldom examines how pollution affects learning outcomes. This disconnect leaves policymakers with an incomplete picture of the barriers children face. Bridging this gap requires longitudinal studies that follow children over time, linking educational progress with environmental exposure.

Investing in data integration is a crucial first step for India. Internationally, there are useful models to draw from: in the United States, for example, national guidelines require incorporating environmental data, air quality, traffic emissions, contaminated sites, and flood risk when selecting school locations. India could adopt a similar evidence-based approach, combining large-scale surveys such as the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) with granular exposure data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to uncover local patterns of educational inequality driven by environmental factors.

Pollution is not just an environmental or health issue. It is a major obstacle to human capital development. In countries like India, where millions of children already face systemic challenges to access education, recognizing environmental health as a foundational element of education systems can help ensure that all young people have the chance to reach their full potential.