By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education, says Ghana has made climate education a topmost priority in its reformed standard based curriculum.
He said the sector was hardest hit when climate induced disasters like floods, storms, and drought occurred, hence the need to introduce children to the nuances of the phenomena to build their resilience.
“Educational sector is always at the receiving end of disasters. When there is drought, children trek long distances in search of water. They are unable to go to school when a storm rips up roofs of their school building” he said.
Rev. Fordjour made this known to the Ghana News Agency at the on-going COP 26 in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
The Deputy Minister mentioned that early and timely exposure of children especially girls to climate change and its impacts could encourage and entice them to opt for science, technology, mathematics and engineering programmes to innovate simple technologies to address challenges that affect them.
Throwing more light on the climate education implementation, he explained that the Ministry of Education working with the Environmental Protection Agency had equipped teachers with knowledge on climate change to teach children up to the pre-tertiary level.
He said the Ministry and the EPA was looking for partners to bring climate change and green economy literacy to secondary education, and work with teacher training institutions to strengthen climate change and green economy issues in the standard training programme for teachers.
Rev. Fordjour who is part of Ghana’s delegation to the COP26 said a strong presentation on nexus between education and climate change had been made and the relevant issues highlighted to stakeholders.
The Deputy Minister urged stakeholders, especially development partners to support initiatives that would build resilience of children to better adapt.
“Often the orientation of development partners and leaders is that they only offer support after a disaster has occurred. There should be a paradigm shift where they will commit to invest in systems to build resilience,” he said.
He reiterated the country’s commitment towards increasing the contribution of education to building a more just and sustainable world through the implementation of education for sustainable development by 2030.
Source: News Ghana