Friday 24 May 2019

Labour pledges to make climate change ‘core part’ of school curriculum

The Labour Party has pledged to make climate change a “core part” of the curriculum starting from primary schools.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner has set out plans to ensure all young people are educated in schools about the social and environmental impacts of climate change if the party comes into power.

She says the curriculum would focus on the knowledge and skills needed by young people “in a world that will be increasingly shaped by climate change”, particularly in renewable energy and green technology jobs, with the skills “severely underrepresented” in the current curriculum.

The announcement comes as more climate school strikes are hosted across the UK today, with demands to reform the national curriculum to address the ecological crisis as an educational priority – teaching climate change is said to be currently restricted to Chemistry and Geography in Key Stages 3 and 4.

Ms Rayner said: “Today, young people are taking to the streets to send a clear message to the government that climate change will be a fundamental and defining feature of their adult lives and we must take the action needed to tackle it.

“We need to equip people with the knowledge to understand the enormous changes we face and skills to work with the new green technologies that we must develop to deal with them. That must be part of a broad education and that prepares pupils for adult life. Climate change should be a core part of the school curriculum and under a Labour Government it will be.

“As well as teaching young people about the impact of climate change, their education must prepare them for the jobs of the future. As part of Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution to create 400,000 skilled jobs across the country, young people will be taught the skills they need.”

Last week, the Labour Party said it would take National Grid out of the hands of private shareholders and into public ownership.