Teachers are the backbone of education systems and the key to reaching learning goals, regardless of context and situation. Within the COVID-19 crisis, they are on the front line in ensuring that...
30 November - 12 December 2023
Consult the list of UNESCO education events tackling teacher capacity-building and greening teacher training.
UNESCO is actively involved in accelerating climate change education and will showcase its efforts at the global stage during this year's United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November to 12 December 2023. This international event provides a valuable platform for securing commitments and actions from countries regarding climate change education.
hroughout the 13-day event, UNESCO will co-host a series of events highlighting the essential role of education in getting every learner climate-ready. In collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Education UNESCO as secretariat to the Greening Education Partnership will establish the first historical Greening Education Hub, featuring over 200 sessions organized to promote concrete actions and solutions through education. Youth members of the Partnership will also play a leading role in the dialogue and paving the next steps.
Objectives
The following is an overview of UNESCO-related events taking place at COP28.
30 November-12 December, Green Zone, Expo City, Dubai, UAE
The inaugural Greening Education Hub, known as the Greening Education Hub: LEGACY – إ ث from the Land of Zayed, will be set up in the green zone. The hub is hosted by the UAE Ministry of Education, co-organised with the Greening Education Partnership, supported by its UNESCO secretariat. The space and the corresponding events will emphasize education's pivotal role in addressing the climate crisis.
The hub is designed around the four action pillars of the Greening Education Partnership: greening schools, greening curriculum, greening teacher training and education system's capacities, and greening communities.
The programming will include:
8 December 2023, Green Zone, Expo City, Dubai, UAE
High-level session on greening education
On the occasion of Youth and Education Day, UNESCO in partnership with the Ministry of Education of UAE will organize a session focusing on youth-based action to green education. Key stakeholders will engage in discussions on accelerating green education across the world. The objective of this event is to secure political support and strengthen the global commitment on the common agenda for education and climate change at COP28 and beyond.
During the event, The Declaration on the Common Agenda for Education and Climate Change at COP28, which was drafted on input from the GEP members countries, will be presented. It aims to strengthen and renew the country commitments and actions at COP28 and beyond on the role of education in adapting and mitigating climate change and the need for more investment to accelerate greening education globally.
The high-level session will be followed by technical concurrent sessions on boosting the objectives of the Greening Education Partnership and accelerating action on the four pillars. Members working on each pillar will gather to discuss next steps and activities for achieving the Partnerships’ mission.
9 December 2023, Green zone, Expo City Dubai, UAE
This session will focus on reflections on the achievements of the member groups working on the four pillars and discuss the way forward, highlighting elements in the annual report and key data and evidence from the baseline survey report.
12 December 14:00-15:00 UTC+1
This session marks the end of the second season of UNFCCC-UNESCO webinars. It will review COP28, discussing what we've learned, achieved, committed to, and where we go next in promoting climate change education, with a focus on greening schools.
In the previous webinars, we explored how schools can go "green" by incorporating Education for Sustainable Development into their teaching, facilities, governance, and community engagement. Building on the commitments made at COP28 by governments and others, the discussion will revolve around how to encourage cooperation across different sectors and among various stakeholders, bridging governments and society to support global efforts in making education and schools more environmentally conscious.
This session will tackle these questions:
The Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) organizes the 10th International Conference & 12th Roundtable which will be hosted by the Ministry of Education, Art and Culture, Republic of Namibia, and Namibia National Teachers Union (NANTU).
During the Ministerial Session on May 9, the 'Supporting teachers through policy development – lessons from sub-Saharan Africa' will be launched. Based on the experiences of nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the new report by UNESCO and the Teacher Task Force provides an overview on the use of the Teacher Policy Development Guide to develop teacher policies, to improve the effective organization and management of the teacher workforce to ensure countries can deliver on the promise of quality education.
The session will also illustrate that teachers should be at the core of teacher policy development based on a collaborative framework, including the important role of social dialogue. It will also provide a number of key findings and recommendations for national governments and development partners to consider in current and future teacher policy development efforts.
SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR H.E. Hage Gottfried Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia
CHIEF HOST Hon. Ester Anna Nghipondoka, MP. Minister of Education, Art and Culture, Namibia
CO-HOST Namibia National Teachers Union (NANTU)
For more information and to consult the full agenda, please visit the official conference website.
Belgian IT teacher, Koen Timmers, created the Climate Action Project in 2017. He envisioned it as a useful resource to help teachers incorporate climate change into their lesson plans. He didn’t expect it to become a global movement in just five years.
The project is helping to transform education and support teachers by creating a space for climate change and sustainable lifestyles in the curriculum. It also promotes a global outlook by encouraging dialogue and collaboration between learners in different countries.
Today, over 10 million learners from 107 countries have taken part in the six-week online course which has been endorsed by world-renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, Amnesty International, Microsoft, WWF, NASA, UNESCO, the UN Environment Programme, and ministries of education across 16 countries.
“Climate change is something that’s affecting everyone, everywhere. I created the project so that students and teachers from all over the world could talk about this issue, learn from each other, and take action,” says Koen. And that, he believes, is the key to the project’s success.
“You can learn by reading a textbook, you can learn from a teacher, you can learn from a newspaper. But in all of those cases, you really only have one side of the story,” says Koen. “But when you are able to speak to someone living on another continent, and you realise you share passions (like football and sustainability), you build a relationship with them.”
Koen’s passion has always been to help transform the field of education. “I wanted to work with people. I really love explaining stuff, and I wanted to do something that was relevant in society, so I became a teacher.”
Since 2016, Koen has been involved in helping to set up and equip a learning centre in the Kakuma refugee camp. Through the facility, over 420 teachers from 75 countries around the world offer online lessons to the learners in the refugee camp.
“Through these classes, learners from different countries are able to have meaningful conversations with the learners at Kakuma,” says Koen. “It helps all of the learners develop a global outlook and break down stereotypes.”
It is this online interaction between learners from around the world that inspired Koen’s Climate Action Project.
As well as being a useful teaching resource, Koen’s vision for the Climate Action Project was to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by giving teachers and learners a platform to help create positive change in the world.
“I wanted to make a way for students from all across the world to connect with each other, to share how climate change is affecting them, and to be empowered to create solutions.”
“I think what surprised me the most about the Climate Action Project is how different the stories are,” says Koen.
Participants in Ireland convinced the government to create a new logo for recyclable plastics while learners in India built a solar-powered car. In Malawi, students planted 60 million trees, in the US they built a portable solar-powered battery pack in a suitcase, and in Indonesia they developed their own ecobricks.
Koen and his partners also developed the EarthProject app which allows users to track their climate-friendly behaviour, such as avoiding red meat, buying a refurbished phone, and ride-sharing. It adds up the amount of carbon saved through these actions.
The app proves that incorporating something like the Climate Action Project into lessons is one of the ways we can transform education and achieve the SDGs.
“Students are not only learning about climate change. They are taking action, and coming up with sustainable solutions.”
While Koen supports the use of technology as a teaching resource, he believes that nothing is more effective than a passionate, skilled teacher.
“We need to increase teacher salaries so that we can get the very best teachers back into the classroom. To be a successful person you have to know how to solve problems, filter fake news, and build relationships with people who are different to you. That’s how teachers can help their students build a global outlook. And that, in my opinion, is the future of education.”
***
● To join the Climate Action Project for free, register here: https://www.climate-action.info/user/register
● The Kakuma Project, as well as several other educational facilities in the refugee camp are supported through donations to the Kakuma NPO. Partners include Maggie, UNHCR and TAG.
● The Climate Action Project is supported through Koen’s non-profit organisation, Take Action Global.
Learn more about the #TeachersTransform campaign as part of the Transforming Education Summit.
Photo credit: Koen Timmers
Co-organised by the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, VVOB - education for development, Education International and UNESCO-UNEVOC, this session is part of the 14th edition of the European Development Days on the Green Deal for a Sustainable Future.
“The Green Deal for a Sustainable Future” critically depends on green skills - that is, skills for working in a green economy; and skills for helping to bring about a green, just economy - and on the teachers and trainers tasked with skilling youth for these transformations.
This session debates the following key questions:
For more information click here.
On the occasion of Africa Day, ProFuturo is organising on 25 May the event The transforming power of e-ducation in Africa, a dialogue on the challenges and opportunities of education on the African continent. The meeting will be streamed on ProFuturo’s YouTube channel from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm (Spanish time). You will be able to enjoy the event in both Spanish and English thanks to simultaneous translation. In addition, there will be sign language translation in Spanish.
The meeting is co-organised by ProFuturo, Casa África, UNHCR, Empieza Por Educar, Entreculturas, Save the Children and World Vision, with the support of Planeta Futuro and Mundo Negro. The event will focus on Africa and the progress that has been made in the field of education in recent years. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning of millions of African children will also be discussed.
The representatives of the participating organisations will analyse the challenges and opportunities for education in Africa today. Teacher training, access to education for refugee children, boosting digital education and enrolling girls in school will be among the issues on the table.
The event will be supported by Planeta Futuro and Mundo Negro, who will reflect on how Africa is reported in Spain and how a comprehensive story, which also includes positive news, can help change our perception of the continent and contribute to its transformation.
More info: https://profuturo.education/en/news/event-education-profuturo-africa-day-25-may/
On the occasion of Africa Day, ProFuturo is organising on 25 May the event The transforming power of e-ducation in Africa, a dialogue on the challenges and opportunities of education on the African continent. The meeting will be streamed on ProFuturo’s YouTube channel from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm (Spanish time). You will be able to enjoy the event in both Spanish and English thanks to simultaneous translation. In addition, there will be sign language translation in Spanish.
The meeting is co-organised by ProFuturo, Casa África, UNHCR, Empieza Por Educar, Entreculturas, Save the Children and World Vision, with the support of Planeta Futuro and Mundo Negro. The event will focus on Africa and the progress that has been made in the field of education in recent years. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning of millions of African children will also be discussed.
The representatives of the participating organisations will analyse the challenges and opportunities for education in Africa today. Teacher training, access to education for refugee children, boosting digital education and enrolling girls in school will be among the issues on the table.
The event will be supported by Planeta Futuro and Mundo Negro, who will reflect on how Africa is reported in Spain and how a comprehensive story, which also includes positive news, can help change our perception of the continent and contribute to its transformation.
More info: https://profuturo.education/en/news/event-education-profuturo-africa-day-25-may/
On the occasion of Africa Day, ProFuturo is organising on 25 May the event The transforming power of e-ducation in Africa, a dialogue on the challenges and opportunities of education on the African continent. The meeting will be streamed on ProFuturo’s YouTube channel from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm (Spanish time). You will be able to enjoy the event in both Spanish and English thanks to simultaneous translation. In addition, there will be sign language translation in Spanish.
The meeting is co-organised by ProFuturo, Casa África, UNHCR, Empieza Por Educar, Entreculturas, Save the Children and World Vision, with the support of Planeta Futuro and Mundo Negro. The event will focus on Africa and the progress that has been made in the field of education in recent years. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning of millions of African children will also be discussed.
The representatives of the participating organisations will analyse the challenges and opportunities for education in Africa today. Teacher training, access to education for refugee children, boosting digital education and enrolling girls in school will be among the issues on the table.
The event will be supported by Planeta Futuro and Mundo Negro, who will reflect on how Africa is reported in Spain and how a comprehensive story, which also includes positive news, can help change our perception of the continent and contribute to its transformation.
More info: https://profuturo.education/en/news/event-education-profuturo-africa-day-25-may/