Commonwealth of Learning |24 May 2022

The high-level panel in a souvenir photograph (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Seychelles hosts high-level forum on climate change and education

By Vidya Gappy

How the education and skills development sectors in Commonwealth member states can contribute to mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change was the focus of a high-level forum held yesterday at the Savoy Resort & Spa.

Organised by the Ministry of Education and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the high-level panel discussion was chaired by the international policy expert, researcher and speaker on environment, climate and island issues, Dr Rolph Payet, executive secretary, secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, United Nations Environment Programme.

COL is an intergovernmental agency established by Commonwealth heads of government in 1989, to promote education and training in member states through the use of open and distance learning (ODL) and technologies. COL’s high-level panel is being constituted to identify a roadmap for how the education and skills development sectors in Commonwealth member states can contribute to mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change and to propose steps to develop strategies for building resilient systems that can foster environmental conservation. The resulting report will be presented to Commonwealth ministers for education.

While recommending how distance education and technologies can be harnessed appropriately to mitigate the carbon footprint of education and training, the panel will: (i) identify concrete actions in education and training that will contribute to awareness raising and strategies for developing policies and building capacities to promote environmental conservation; (ii) advise on changes to school, college and university curricula needed to urgently address the issues climate change; (iii) highlight opportunities for research and collaboration; (iv) focus on building resilience in the small island developing states.

The expected outcomes are the development of a ‘Roadmap for Action’ outlining key priorities for policies and activities related to the role of education and skills development in addressing the climate crisis; strengthened collaboration and networking in this priority area and sharing resources and lessons learned.

Education Minister Justin Valentin noted that since November of last year, the ministers of the island states of the Commonwealth are meeting where they drafted a plan for education concerning climate change which falls under the education system of the Commonwealth.

“We want to, at an early age, begin to make children understand what climate change means, and we think that when they will have understood what climate change means then they will be able to truly react and give a hand in finding solutions which will help solve some of the things that are happening. Each action that the children will take will also have an impact on what will happen. Change will not necessarily be short-term. Change will be long-term, because those children will grow up and when they do, they will grow with that knowledge and of course they will grow up with knowing how to live in relation with climate change.”

Today, specifically about Seychelles, “we have a plan to put technology in schools and when technology will have arrived in school then of course the students will have access to any material being developed. What we’re doing today isn’t necessarily just for technology. It will be based on other aspects of the school programme which we are bringing so that climate change is not just something in the air. We want to have a school programme that is relevant and today the relevant topics that we have are climate change, finance and technology. All of the things that are relevant today in the life of a citizen, we want to put them in the school programme,” explained Minister Valentin.

The Minister for Education also shared that they have been collaborating with the Ministry of Environment. “My colleague minister and I, are enforcing this work now because we want these two ministries to remain engaged and connected so that we can send the single message that for us to be able to build with climate change on a long-term, we need to make sure that school students understand the topic of climate change.”

Professor Asha Kanwar, president and chief executive of COL shared that progress is very limited, “which is why we are having this meeting, because we want to develop a report for climate action which the ministers can take because the education sector globally has more than one billion children going to school every day. So, education sector has a big role to play, which is why we are having this meeting and the reason why we are having this meeting in Seychelles is because Seychelles is really at the forefront of climate change with the blue economy institute. We have to take very proactive action and very urgently”.

How soon can the actions be taken, taken into consideration that climate change is in full swing already?

Professor Kanwar stated that it has to be behavioural change for every individual. “We can’t just leave it or put the wholeness on the education sector to do it. Every individual has to take responsibility and change their behaviour to become more conservative. We have to go back to that type of lifestyle where we used and reused, instead of that waste. Teachers can play a big role and the Commonwealth of Learning has implemented a ‘green teacher programme’ some years ago in India and Nigeria. We are teaching teachers to inculcate environmental concerns in the classroom with the children. We offered this massive online course for the Blue economy, which has raised awareness about the importance of oceans and their sustainability, and now out of that we are developing skills in sustainable tourism, sustainable agriculture etc which are all centering around the blue economy. I suppose actions are already being taken.

This is the fourth meeting that is being held and the first meeting was regional consultations in the four regions of the Commonwealth where 26 countries participated. The Commonwealth is spread across the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. All countries had views on what they wanted the report to look like; what were their top priorities and what were their needs.

In attendance at this important meeting were: Lady Howard Mabuza, Minister for Education & Training, eSwatini; Dr Aishath Ali, Minister for Education, Maldives; Fathmath Naseer, Minister of State, Maldives; Flavien Joubert, Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Seychelles; Dr Justin Valentin, Minister for Education, Seychelles; Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister for Education, Trinidad & Tobago; Dr Arjoon Suddhoo, deputy secretary general, Commonwealth secretariat; Won Jung Byun, programme specialist, Unesco, France; Professor Asha Kanwar, president & chief executive, Commonwealth of Learning; John Lesperance, principal secretary for Education Development, Ministry of Education, Seychelles; Lenor Baptiste-Simmons, permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, Trinidad & Tobago; Dr Sanjaya Mishra, director: Education, Commonwealth of Learning; Jutta Alexis, director general for Network and Engagement, MoE and Vicky Morel, chief liaison officer, MoE.