Ministry of Education Aligns with New UN SDG Trends to Develop Environmental Education for New Generations
The World Environment Day 2021 (21 June) marked the 10th anniversary of the implementation of Taiwan’s Environmental Education Act. As it was amidst the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan, it presented an opportunity to reexamine the co-existence between humans and ecosystems and rebuild a global consensus on sustainable development with the educational framework. Facing climate change, everyone is urged to elevate capabilities in disaster risk management and establish a resistant mechanism to effectively respond to various environmental challenges.
For this year’s World Environment Day, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) collaborated with Pakistan with the theme of “Ecosystem Restoration.” The UN has launched a decade-long initiative from 2021 to 2030 to increase the planet’s environmental resistance, promote reforestation, and protect biodiversity. Following such endeavor, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has since 2021 organized programs to teach students in all schools to love trees. From learning about different tree species to planting trees, both faculty and students can acquire knowledge relating to trees and forests and learn to respect them.
As part of the current 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines, environmental education is well incorporated into teaching materials of all subjects to instill a generation of young citizens with environmental protection and sustainable development values. Nonetheless, the thought process behind environmental education should also incorporate economic and social aspects. As a result, the MOE has answered the UN’s call for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by bringing up the New-Generation Environmental Education Development (NEED), a learning blueprint to increase the environmental awareness of teachers and students in future generations in time of urgent climate crises. Topics like climate change, ESD, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be included in the existing education strategies to help achieve the UN’s 17 SDGs set for 2030.
To help facilitate in-depth ESD in all schools, the MOE held seminars for groups of environmental educators across the island from April to early May, discussing Taiwan’s development of environmental education and their sustainable development-themed contents. Schools are to utilize campus governance, facility management (including space and resources), regular classes, and community partners in their teaching strategies, as well as encourage students to explore and learn with hands-on practices so that they will be equipped to face complicated economic, environmental, and social challenges brought by climate change.
Local environmental educators provided invaluable feedback during the seminars. New Taipei City emphasized the UN SDGs, enhanced educators’ professional capacities, became partners with local communities, and developed diverse teaching programs. Kaohsiung City strengthened the group operation by enhancing schools’ understanding of SDGs under the existing environmental education programs. And in its short films, Hsinchu City demonstrated innovative classes on food forests and wetland ecosystems for waders. It also integrated digital learning and Maker education in its teaching programs, which local schools would receive.
Furthermore, the MOE has published pamphlets of NEED strategies to assist schools to better understand how environmental education can link to the UN’s new ESD trend and learning contents. The pamphlet can also be used as board games for teachers to teach and discuss various environmental topics with students in the classroom. It can be viewed and downloaded on the MOE’s website for the Green School Partner Network Platform.
Sources: Ministry of Education
