Education systems faced with the challenge of climate change: where does Africa stand

Education is widely recognised as a key factor in the fight against climate change in major international agreements, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Is this also the case for governments, particularly in Africa? The reality varies greatly from one sub-region to another.

For example, in Central Africa, and more specifically in Cameroon, common education on climate change has yet to be developed and standardised. “From SIL to CM2, we educate children about cleanliness, i.e. cleaning up their environment and throwing rubbish in the bin, as part of a course entitled ‘Education for citizenship’. We usually come up with practical examples, as there is no school textbook on environmental protection to date”, says Jacqueline Fotsing, a nursery teacher at Essos public school in the fifth Division of Yaoundé.

It is really at secondary school level that climate issues are beginning to be discussed, and here again they are covered in the context of a subject called geography, particularly in the 6^th and 5^th grades, with modules such as “the module (preservation of the environment) where pupils are taught about protecting the environment, adapting to climate change and adopting environmentally-friendly behaviour, i.e. reforestation, protecting parks and natural areas, etc.”, according to the Cameroon Ministry of Secondary Education (MINESEC). And as pupils progress through secondary school, education on climate change will become more specific, although there will still be no real textbook dedicated to this phenomenon.

At higher education level, we will move up a notch with courses entirely devoted to the issue of climate change, as is already the case at the University of Dschang, where a professional master’s degree in “Climate Change, Biodiversity and the Circular Economy” (CCBEV) has been open since 2015. This state university is one of the first to offer this course in Cameroon.

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Faced with the need to develop mitigation and adaptation skills, Tunisia has also decided to include education as a resilience strategy. And only recently, the association Tunisie recyclage launched a training programme on climate change and the circular economy, in which the German Agency for International Development Cooperation (GIZ) is a partner.

Building the capacity of school children to manage waste in Tunisia in the face of the climate challenge

This training, initiated by Tunisie Recyclage, will be implemented as part of the Climate Protection through the Circular Economy in Tunisia (ProtecT) project, in two batches. The first will equip schoolchildren in the governorates of Kairouan, Gafsa and Bizerte with good practice in the selective sorting of solid waste from the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. This approach involves separating waste at source, according to its nature, in order to avoid contact and contamination.

Climate change education for pupils in the governorates of Kairouan, Gafsa and Bizerte©Tunisie Recyclage

Students will also learn about the phenomenon of climate change, which is to some extent the result of poor waste management and the source of methane emissions, a greenhouse gas (GHG) 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂) and which accounts for a fifth of global GHG emissions, according to the UN. In a report published in May 2021, the international organisation added that a 45% reduction in methane emissions would make it possible to avoid a rise in global temperature.

With this in mind, the University of Sfax, again in the country of Kaïs Saïed, will be training students in the sorting and recycling of solid waste from the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, as well as in the development of appropriate technological solutions to pollution.

The course, which will take place at its Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie (ISBS), will welcome between 15 and 20 students in its first year.

While Central Africa and North Africa are increasingly recognising that education provides solutions to climate change, this is also the case for Southern Africa. In the sub-region, countries are now working together to ensure that teachers are prepared to address this and other sustainability challenges in their teaching. South Africa also wants to position itself as a hub for climate training.

In June 2021, Stellenbosch University will become the first university to host a School of Climate Studies on its campus. This will offer transdisciplinary programmes to support resilience to climate change and a low-carbon economy.

South Africa plans to extend this project to all its universities, thus becoming a benchmark in this field on the African continent, according to Blade Nzimande, South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, in 2021. The move towards a green economy should create new careers in engineering, manufacturing, agriculture, renewable energy and research into the fundamental factors of climate change in the rainbow nation.

The United Nations summit on transforming education in 2022©Unesco

“There are many other good practices on the continent. In West Africa, Ghana has revised its national curriculum to strengthen climate change education, and in the Seychelles, an archipelago in East Africa, climate education is addressed in all schools as part of efforts to promote green schools,” says Won Jung Byun, programme specialist in the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) section at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). She points out that the commitment “to make climate change education their priority thematic area” was made by more than 90 countries, including African countries, at the United Nations summit on transforming education in 2022.

In response to this strong interest from countries in creating climate-resilient education systems, the Partnership for Greening Education was launched, calling for action in four priority areas: greening schools, greening curricula, greening teacher training and education system capacity, and greening communities to help prepare every learner for climate change by 2030.

Climate change education at school, but not only …

But teachers alone will not do the job. While schools are the starting point, it is also important to take advantage of the non-formal and informal learning that takes place outside schools. “For example, many civil society organisations (CSOs) support climate change education in communities, such as the NaDEET centre in Namibia, the water conservation activities in the Enkanini settlement in Cape Town, South Africa, or the activities of the scouts in Kenya,” explains Won Jung Byunde of Unesco.

According to the international specialised institution based in Paris, France, cities also support the climate resilience of communities through lifelong learning at local level, as shown by the African municipalities involved in UNESCO’s global network of learning cities (Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe), The greening of technical and vocational education and training through green skills is also essential to ensure that businesses adapt and conduct climate-resilient practices in the future.

While many countries now provide resilient education in addition to education that is safe and protected from the effects of climate change, others are still lagging behind.

UNESCO’s call to action

To move forward, each country is invited to create a national initiative on ESD that engages various stakeholders in society, including children and young people, parents, policy-makers, teachers and the private sector, in line with the ten-year global framework entitled “ESD for 2030” launched by UNESCO. The aim of this action at national level is to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs by this deadline through education, by promoting understanding of sustainable development, encouraging critical thinking and action.

A mother teaching her daughter about reforestation©Pressmaster/Shutterstock

“By 2030, we want to put in place quality education and sustainable development policies, transform our schools into innovative and climate-resilient places of learning, support teachers by providing them with adequate training and materials so that they can teach about sustainability and climate change, ensuring that young people are empowered and engaged in the decision-making process, and thus transforming our communities so that they become more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable”, says Won Jung Byun, UNESCO’s ESD programme specialist.

This ideal of a model resilient education system, if achieved, would make it possible to protect and promote quality, relevant and equitable education; protect the earth’s ecosystems; and promote climate justice in Africa. On this continent more than on others, climate change is having unprecedented effects: rising temperatures, reduced water reserves, loss of biodiversity, degradation of ecosystems, etc.

Inès Magoum