Next shool year’s curriculum to include environment

CEBU, Philippines - A curriculum that will focus mainly on environment will already be included in the next school year, according to Secretary Lucille Sering of the Climate Change Commission.

Sering said they already discussed this matter with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) two years ago, and the two agencies were very positive in their response.

Sering said that DepEd and CHEd are still finalizing the things needed to realize the curriculum since it is still undergoing certain processes but she is hopeful that it will already be applied and practiced by June this year.

Meanwhile, the Climate Change Commission urged the Visayan youth to be climate resiliency advocates through the Greeneration Summit.

Over 900 students from the different parts of the Visayas attended the one-day forum yesterday at the Oakridge Pavillion in Mandaue City.

Participants were from the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R), University of San Carlos (USC), University of Cebu (UC), University of the Philippines (UP)-Cebu, Biliran and Eastern Samar among others.

The Visayas leg of the summit aims to empower the youth on the issue of climate change. It is one of the campaign of the Commission in raising not just awareness but consciousness among the youth and helping them realize how they can make an impact in influencing their community to be climate resilient.

Sering said that the youth sector can be key agents of change in preparing for climate impacts.

“Children and the youth are among the most vulnerable sectors with regard to climate impacts. However, this vulnerable portion of our population, if properly capacitated, can be transformed into effective advocates of climate resiliency,” Sering said.

Sering said one of the strategic priorities of their National Climate Changes Action Plan is knowledge and capacity development because they are cognizant of the importance of having ample information about climate change and its impacts to effectively cushion its effects.

As youth leaders and organizations gathered yesterday, topics such as climate resiliency, environmental conservation and protection and disaster preparedness are discussed by speakers from government agencies and non-government organizations as well as local government units.

Through this summit, youth leaders will be encouraged by the Commission to come up with their own climate change action plan and programs.

These programs will then be reviewed by the Commission and the best initiatives will be compiled and replicated in other areas in the country.

“We want the youth to be actively involved especially that their generations will most likely experience climate impacts that we are working on to be mitigated,” Sering said during the press conference yesterday.

“Programs and initiatives that will be identified by the participants after this gathering will later be documented into a compendium of best practices which will serve as resource and reference materials for other youth organizations,” Sering added.

The Commission also introduced the Greeneration Ambassadors Bianca Gonzalez, Anna Oposa and San Vicente Mayor Carmela Alvarez, during the event yesterday. They will help the agency in reaching the youth and advocating greater youth involvement towards resiliency.

Gonzales, who is an ABS-CBN Kapamilya Star and TV host, is a blogger and an active social media user, who discusses the youth’s need for eco-education.

Oposa, on the other hand, is the Chief Mermaid of Save Philippines Seas, a non-government organization actively involved in coastal and marine protection. She has been hailed as a champion of environmental rights and is currently working with the Commission for its ecotown site in San Vicente, Palawan.

Working with Oposa is the 25-year old municipal mayor of San Vicente, Alvarez, with her town as one of the demonstration sites of the Ecotown project of the Commission, she is a befitting advocate of climate resiliency.

“It is high time that we motivate the young generation to be active in addressing climate change. We want a greeneration – a generation for a greener nation,” Sering said. —/MIT (FREEMAN)