Hot classrooms lower children’s grades

Suggests use of AC to reduce temperature

Hot weather is likely to lower children’s academic grades, said Harvard scientists, who have found that higher temperatures make it harder for students to study in lessons in school and concentrate on their homework.

The research found that every 0.55 degree increase above 21 degrees Celsius cost a child 1% in their exam scores.

Researchers from Harvard University in the U.S. analysed 10 million children’s test scores taken across 13 years.

The study found that hotter weather made it harder to study lessons in school and to concentrate on homework out of school. It suggests air conditioning should be used to keep classrooms cool, the researchers said.

Colder days did not damage achievement, however the reduction in learning accelerated once temperatures rose above 32 degrees Celsius and even more so above 38 degrees Celsius.

The data showed that students were more likely to have lower scores in years with higher temperatures and better results in cooler years, ‘The Telegraph’ reported. This applied across the many different types of climate, whether in cooler northern U.S. states or in the southern states, where temperatures are typically much higher.