Climate Change in Schools

A few years back the subject of environmental education was introduced in schools. The subject deals with several environmental functions, how it worked and what role is played by the humans in this ecosystem and its sustainability. But now the subject needs to be more precise and to the point as global warming and climate change are getting worse with each passing day. Italy came a step forward and decided to make climate change a compulsory subject in schools. Italy’s Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti claims that Italy is the first country to include climate change curriculums in their syllabus. From the next school year every school will have to dedicate 33 hours a year in the study of climate change. Each school will have to give at least an hour per school week, where discussions about the challenges of climate change and several curriculums related to it. Different grades will have different approaches to the matter; for example, children of elementary school will read it as fairy-tales where the environment will be connected to stories from different cultures. Middle school will teach more technical terms and information and in high school they will learn about the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

Fioramonti believes and says,“The 21^st-century citizen must be a sustainable citizen.”He further said,"The entire ministry is being changed to make sustainability and climate the center of the education model. I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school.”

Fioramonti already has a bad reputation among the conservatives for pushing taxes on sugar, plastics and for inspiring students to skip classes for participating in teen environmentalist Greta Thunberg’s global drive “Fridays for Future”. The young generation is the future of any nation and Fioramonti is well aware of that. He wants the young generation to take matters of climate change in their hands and Fioramonti wants to support and boost that.