- Ryan Calleja Urry
Italy To Become First Country To Make "Climate Change" A Compulsory Lesson For Students đ â
⢠Italian education minister making strides for positive environmental initiatives
⢠Italy to implement mandatory 33 hours of climate education in public schools per year
Environmental awareness is a huge deal right now. It feels like every month a new survey or study comes out about how the human race is f*cking up the planet or killing off another species. Things need to change.
So, how are we gonna reverse this? Well, step 1 is to educate people on what we're doing wrong & how to fix it - and that's exactly what our next-door neighbours in Italy are doing...
A Greener Syllabus
In a recent announcement, Italian education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti said that all public schools will soon require students in each and every grade to study climate change. Students will be taught about positive environmental practices and how to create sustainability for future generations.
By this January, he said, the ministry will be ready to train teachers. By September 2020, the 33-hour-a-year lesson plan will be used as a pilot program that will ultimately be implemented into the students' entire curriculum of subjects - following the United Nations' climate agenda.
For children aged 6 to 11, Lorenzo said, âwe are thinking of using the fairy-tale model,â in which stories from different cultures will be used to demonstrate effects on the environment. Middle schoolers would be expected to learn more technical information, while older students would explore the United Nationsâ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in depth.
Who Is Lorenzo Fioramonti?
He's a member of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which was set up with environmental proactivity as the north star of its operations. The education minister is known for his proposals for new taxes on airline tickets, plastic, as well as sugary foods, to raise funds for educational initiatives.
These ideas faced strong attacks from critics who said Italians were already over-taxed.
Last September, he also encouraged students to skip school to join the "Fridays for Future" protests - which call on world leaders to take action in fighting climate change.
This movement, launched last year by Swedish phenomenon Greta Thunberg, is seen by Lorenzo as an "essential" activity. He stressed that the lives of future students was being "threatened by environmental devastation and an unsustainable economic growth model."
Do you agree with this initiative? Should Malta be next? âťď¸
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