Schools are “in danger of preparing students for a world that’s no longer going to exist,” MPs were warned today as the first student-led bill on climate change had its second reading in parliament.
Two-thirds of teachers say education about climate change is not embedded in their school’s curriculum in a meaningful way, a survey suggested.
It comes as the first student-led bill calling for climate change education to be “integrated” through primary and secondary schools had its second reading in the Commons.
The bill has received cross-party support and is co-sponsored by Robert Halfon MP, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, as well as Lib Dem MP Layla Moran and Green MP Caroline Lucas.
Research by climate education campaign group Teach the Future, drawing on responses from over 4,000 teachers, found 67 per cent reported that their school and subject area did not teach issues relating to climate change in a way that was “meaningful and relevant”.
Matt Carmichael, an English teacher at Roundhay School in Leeds and a spokesperson for Teach the Future, said schools were “in danger of preparing students for a world that’s no longer going to exist”.
“We do what is required, which is deliver the content in geography and science, but that is wholly inadequate for addressing this big emergency situation,” he said.
“We’re in danger of implying that climate change is something that only geographers and scientists need to worry about. Teachers can’t avoid the subject anymore - it’s coming up in every kind of subject imaginable because this is what young people are actually concerned about.”
“Climate change is such an overwhelmingly huge issue that it really does demand looking at what we’re teaching and why we’re teaching it again,” he added.
“We’re in danger of preparing students for a world that’s no longer going to exist.”
But he added that the signs were “good” and the wave of support from young people for the bill showed how strong their demands were for the education system to take the issue seriously.
Calling for change
Labour MP Nadia Whittome, the youngest sitting MP in the Commons, said: “When I was at school it was much the same as it is now, so climate change was confined to optional subjects like geography and triple science.”
“Even now, the situation is pretty dire. Scarlett Westbrook (a 17-year-old activist leading on the bill) from Teach the Future tells me that when she did her geography GCSE, there was an 8-mark question asking her to describe the benefits of climate change, and I think that demonstrates how far we have yet to go,” she said.
She added that obstacles to climate teaching did not come from teachers or the education system and that pupils were very keen to learn about the issue.
Teachers were “united, hand in hand with students” in calling for the change, despite how “full” the curriculum was.
Student Izzy King, a member of Teach the Future from East Yorkshire and a co-author of the bill, said that in their own education, climate teaching was “significantly lacking…there was the absolute bare minimum of climate education - there was no sense of urgency whatsoever”, only an explanation that greenhouse gases were making the world “a bit warmer”.
“We really need it now, and it’s not a case of ‘can we afford it?’ We really need it right now otherwise we are not going to get through the next few decades,” they said.
