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Climate change and education

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The Department of Education said it is eyeing a collaboration with experts to improve climate change education, particularly at the basic education level, in response to a new international study that urged people to start preparing for the possibility of a “climate endgame.”

DepEd noted that while key climate change concepts were already integrated into the K-12 curriculum, there was a need to “strengthen [their] presence… by refining learning competencies and standards, wand monitoring learning delivery.”

From kindergarten to junior high school, topics on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) and climate change action are included in subject areas like health, science, Araling Panlipunan and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao. On the other hand, a special subject on DRRM is offered as part of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) strand in senior high school.

A new international research said that despite growing public consensus about the urgency of the climate crisis, high-impact climate scenarios still remain “dangerously underexplored” by both scientists and policymakers. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Cambridge argued that climate scientists must now look into outcomes “ranging from a loss of 10 percent of the global population to eventual human extinction.”

The scientists added that the consequences of global warming and its related risks are currently underexamined, and much of climate-related action remain naïve to extreme scenarios such as mass extinction. At the same time, phrases like “catastrophic climate change” remain deeply ambiguous and thus undermine scientific inquiry into the crisis.

The DepEd has started the initiative with a recently concluded “Climate Changemakers”, a 10-week online training course for some 400 teachers which consists of a core subject on the introduction to climate change, a specialized subject for teaching climate change, and a supplemental course for online learning facilitators.

Climate change is undoubtedly accelerating and the most affected will be the succeeding generations who must be prepared and equipped with the knowledge and tools to address and mitigate its impacts if mankind remains unable to do what must be done now. The role that the Department of Education will play in these necessary preparations will be crucial. It is good we are finally starting to take it seriously.*

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