Through CAP, DG Murray supports Eco-Schools to meet the requirements of a new climate change curriculum, and has supported the appointment of a national climate change coordinator to fulfil this objective. This will involve a number of support workshops where teachers and learners will be introduced to materials and ideas to assist them in integrating climate change into their curriculum and Eco-Schools programmes. The initiative will be valuable in educating learners on Climate Change issues and showing the learners tangible methods for improved ways of living and hopefully changing their attitudes towards the environment. Teachers will be writing up their climate change lesson plans that will be made available more widely through Share-Net for teachers across the country. The launch of the CAP- EcoSchools Partnership took place at Paradise Valley in Pinetown on the 21 August 2008 and was attended by 40 learners and their teachers representing 8 schools.
Introducing Eco-Schools
Presently the Eco-Schools programme is active in 46 countries and in over 21 000 schools. It gives recognition to schools that can show how they have improved the quality of environmental learning and sustainable management in their schools and community. The WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools Programme was launched in South Africa in 2003 with 115 schools participating and 50 achieving their flags. In 2008 more than 930 schools have registered with an expectation that at least half will receive an Eco-School award.
Now into its 6th year in South Africa, many of the participating schools have started to tackle issues around climate change. In fact schools that received their 5th consecutive flag (international flag) in 2007, were required to place a special focus on Climate Change for 2008. This theme is being continued in 2009 too. With this in mind, the need for Climate Change learning support was identified and CAP has been instrumental in helping to set up a pilot programme with schools in the KZN to focus specifically on the Climate Change related learning programmes. This initiative also aligns itself well with the UNESCO’s United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD), which the WESSA/ WWF-SA Eco-Schools programme supports through its efforts.
The initial pilot group of schools supported through CAP consists of around 20 schools that have been with the programme for three years or more or schools that have a genuine interest in being part of the Climate Change learning group.
Why these schools?
- They have a proven record of commitment to learning about the environment, therefore it is fitting that they be the first to benefit from programmes such as the CAP-DG Murray Trust, Climate Change project. This also applies to their environmental management in their schools as well which makes up part of their requirements with the programme.
- Some of these schools (those who achieved their 5th year flag in 2007) are obligated to take up the Climate Change theme for their Eco-Schools award for 2008/9, of which energy is an integral part, therefore supporting the learning in these schools through such an initiative would support them in their Eco-Schools Climate Change projects. Apart from these schools almost all schools that take on Eco-Schools take up the Energy theme, which inevitably looks at climate change issues and ways to improve their environmental management.
All teachers and learners will through their efforts be contributing to development of learning support materials around the Climate Change theme. It is envisioned that these will be published through ShareNet (hard copies and internet based) that will be made available for all schools that have an interest in learning more about Sustainable Living and Climate Change related activities.
