'Education on Climate Change and the Environment in Sustainable Schools' report, launched for public debate

The "Education on Climate Change and the Environment in Sustainable Schools" report, drawn up by the Working Group on Climate Change and Environmental Education set up at the level of the Presidential Administration, will be launched for public debate on Tuesday, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, Agerpres reports.

"On Monday, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated the bill laying the groundwork for a strategy on environmental education and encouraging the development of students' environmental skills, by including them in the areas of competence of the national curriculum for primary and secondary education. The report "Education on Climate Change and the Environment in Sustainable Schools" to be launched for public debate tomorrow [Wednesday, ed.n.], is a first step in concretely developing this strategy," informs the Presidential Administration.

According to the cited source, President Iohannis has constantly promoted education, environmental protection and the fight against climate change as priority topics of his mandates. In order to generate public policies and concrete solutions in these fields, the head of state decided to organize, at the level of the Presidential Administration, various working formats, some more wide-ranging, carried out over several years, such as those that were completed with the 'Educated Romania' project, others on specific topics, such as the working group on "Combating Climate Change: An Integrated Approach", set up at the beginning of 2022.

The Working Group on Climate Change and Environmental Education has been in operation since 2021, bringing together representatives of the Presidential Administration, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, of educational institutions, students, teachers, and parents, as well as of NGOs with relevant experience.

The main objective of this working group is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of education on climate change and the environment, by developing a climate education program at national level. The Presidential Administration points out that one of the main criteria considered for the selection of the members of the group was previous experience in the elaboration and implementation of educational projects in the field of climate change and the environment.

The working group met constantly throughout 2021 to address issues related to infrastructure, teacher training, curricular area, teaching materials, digital tools for climate education, educational activities in nature, so on and so forth. All these elements were summarized in the report titled "Education on Climate Change and the Environment in Sustainable Schools", which will be launched for public debate on Tuesday, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

"The document is aimed at pre-university education and widening access to education on climate change and the environment, and includes a number of concrete proposals and measures. Once implemented, all of these will increase students' exposure to information on climate change factors. At the same time, the practical component was taken into account, thus providing the students with the context to get involved, during their schooling, in hands-on activities of environmental protection," shows the Presidential Administration.

On Monday, the head of state posted on his Facebook page a video of students and young people voicing their support for climate change education.