The Egyptian Ministry of Environment has completed the development of the first strategy to integrate environmental concepts into school curricula in the various stages of education, within the plan of the Ministry of Education in developing school curricula and enriching them with environmental culture, to modify the environmental behavior of students while targeting their parents, to preserve natural resources, and keep pace with global changes in Environmental field.
In statements to the seventh day, the Ministry of Environment described the youth as a “missed opportunity”, in relation to dealing with environmental issues on their side, noting that the strategy aims to create a new and different mechanism for dealing with environmental issues, adding: We tried from the beginning of last year, in cooperation with a group From the youth, coming up with a set of ideas that can be implemented, especially in the school curricula, which are completely devoid, whether theoretical or applied, of any information to introduce students to the importance of the environment and its issues.
She explained that meetings were held with Ministry of Education officials, to limit concepts that may seem heavy to the public, such as: climate change, biodiversity and desertification, and the ministry began distributing them to all educational stages, from the first kindergarten to high school, and dividing them into categories less than 12 years old. And over the age of 12, in cooperation with the National Capacity Building Support Project, to enhance public participation in the environmental field.
The Ministry affirmed that no separate book or curriculum will be devoted to environmental concepts, but rather will be integrated into the school curriculum, as 4 colors have been identified to express the environment, after using international experiences, which are: dark green, yellow, white and blue, to link those terms that will be included in the curricula in every color. who are they. The ministry hoped that the application would start next September, with the new school year.
She indicated that she is not only interested in curricula in pre-university stages, but has begun to prepare a group of university youth, to be responsible for the environmental issues file in each university, and 5 universities have been chosen, namely: Menoufia, Beni Suef, Ain Shams, Helwan, and South Valley. Where a community participation group will be formed from each of them, provided that they are directly affiliated with the minister’s office, to develop and increase awareness of that age group, in cooperation with deputies and departments of community service affairs and environmental development in those universities.
She pointed out that this comes in conjunction with the Ministry’s work to complete the rehabilitation of the natural reserves spread in all governorates, to organize an environmental club for children inside them, and to organize trips for children, such as the Tigris Valley Reserve, where the festival of local nature and cultures will be launched.
For his part, Khalaf Al-Zanati, head of the Teachers Syndicate, stressed the importance of this step to increase students’ awareness of environmental issues, and how to deal with them, indicating that the union is preparing to sign a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of Environment, in order to organize awareness programs and training for teachers on environmental concepts, in preparation for implementation during For the next few years, he indicated that this would support the development of the environment surrounding schools, especially in the popular and poor rural areas.
In statements to Al-Youm Al-Sabea newspaper, Al-Zanati added that the Ministry of Environment does not have executive arms to implement its strategy, unlike the Syndicate, which is the largest professional union in the Middle East, and thus will facilitate the implementation of plans to integrate the environment into the curriculum, pointing out that the union requested the ministry Distributing 1000 garbage containers to schools to encourage students to pay attention to hygiene, and reduce waste dumping in the surrounding streets, which is a source of air pollution, stressing the union’s readiness to start implementation immediately upon signing the protocol with the ministry.
