By Kayla Gochez
Staff Writer
On Nov. 5, Italy’s Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti announced that all public schools will require students in every grade to study climate change and sustainability starting in September 2020.
The new program will cover environmental sustainability and the impact of human actions on different parts of the planet.
Elementary school students will be taught from a “fairy-tale” like model that demonstrates the importance of the environment within different cultures. Middle schoolers will be expected to learn more technical information and high school students will explore the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Fioramonti stated in an interview that, “Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Harvard Institute for International Development, and Kate Raworth of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute — will act as ‘peer reviewers’ for ministry staff preparing the curriculum.”
Teacher’s will begin training by January 2020 and will be expected to conduct 33 hours of lessons per year covering climate-change. Traditional subjects such as geography and physics will incorporate sustainable development teachings as well.
Although many Italians support the new law, there are concerns that the curriculum will be biased towards the idea that climate change is caused solely by mankind.
Chicco Testa, President of the Environmental Group Assombiente, wants officials to ensure that children are being exposed to a variety of differing views such as that climate change is not caused by man.
Fioramonti’s association to the Five Star Movement, a political group which has a history of advocating for environmental concerns, has caused him to experience backlash from right-wing opposition.
Fioramonti remains a firm advocate of environmental issues by pushing the Italian government to begin looking towards passing taxes on plastics and encouraging students to protest climate change. His goal is to make Italy the first country to incorporate global warming and climate-change into their curriculum.
“I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school,” stated Fioramonti.
