IN MARCH 2019, TTUTA on Tuesday would have highlighted action taken by students around the globe to underscore the need to move climate change higher up onto the global agenda in terms of securing a future for all children, interestingly the theme of this year's commemoration of World Children's Day - 'A future for All Children.'
At that time, the point was made that schools must be spaces for learning about and taking action for climate justice. There should be full and free discussions about the consequences of climate change, as well as of possible solutions, including dealing with the social consequences of slowing and stopping the growth of carbon emissions.
COP26 - the climate change conference which recently concluded in Glasgow, Scotland - witnessed a further step towards making climate education a significant tool in the battle to control emissions that, if not curtailed and maintained at the appropriate levels, make the planet virtually inhabitable for some countries - particularly those located in the global south of which the archipelago of Caribbean islands is a part.
Education International (EI), the umbrella organisation for teachers' unions worldwide, participated in various side panel discussions during the conference and reports that while education made it onto the COP26 agenda, there is still a lot of work to be done. EI's deputy general secretary, Haldis Holt, in her various contributions emphasised the need 'to guarantee quality climate change education for all, while highlighting teachers' crucial role in educating on climate change.
Additionally, she underscored the point that while teachers around the world are motivated to teach for the planet, they will need an enabling environment policy to do so including curriculum reform, training on teaching climate change, relevant teaching and learning materials and professional autonomy.
As part of the deliberations, participants witnessed a first-of-its-kind initiative - Together for tomorrow: Education and Climate Action Summit. This summit, held with the conference, provided a space for decisive action to be taken at the country level to bring about the change that is needed surrounding climate action. As obtained in 2019, students' voices reverberated once again as they continued their advocacy for climate education.
The young activists pointed out that 'climate education cannot just be an add-on, it must be integrated through a whole-school approach, and every student, whatever they study, must be a sustainability student.' Moreover, they further added that climate education must be developed with young people, not for them, and more importantly, governments need to invest in teachers.
As an education union we stand with the students. We applaud their depth of understanding in this matter. It reflects a social conscience that adults would do well to emulate. By their robust call for urgent, sustained, targeted, collective global action they have demonstrated a sense of civic responsi
