Government Capitulates And Includes Climate Change In School Curriculum

In the aftermath of an intense campaign by the WWF and other organizations, Michael Gove Secretary for Education has announced that climate change will resume its role on the national geography curriculum for Stage 3 students (11-14 years old).

The WWF is particularly thankful to all its supporters who actually got in contact with their MP and managed to lobby for some purposeful change to what students in England will be studying.

Whilst Mr. Gove did listen to demands regarding climate change he is responsible for an overall weakening of the syllabus in regards to sustainable development. The coalition government pledged when it came to power to be one of the greenest, though that message does not seem to have been heard by the education department.

The WWF is concerned about the absence of climate change and sustainability in the syllabus for primary students. All children regardless of age have to have the knowledge needed to develop a sustainable future.

At the secondary school level, students simply need to know facts regarding how humans are affecting the climate and miss the main point and debate over sustainable development which has totally been omitted from the curriculum.

In the past the syllabus included the objective to “develop their [pupils’] awareness and understanding of, and respect for, the environments in which they live, and secure their commitment to sustainable development at a personal, national and global level.”

If the government is unable to take the initiative and incorporate sustainability into school curriculums, then the schools themselves need to act. Many academic institutions are indeed doing just that. The WWF sincerely hopes that all schools ends up doing so and takes advantage of the flexibility of the new curriculum which is significantly slimmer.