AT LEAST 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling interrupted last year because of heatwaves, cyclones, flooding and other forms of extreme weather, the United Nations children's fund warns in a report published today.

Unicef said it equated to one in seven school-going children across the world being kept out of class at some point in 2024 as a result of climate hazards.

Some countries had hundreds of schools destroyed by weather, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa hit especially hard, the report says.