Children’s Day to see launch of nationwide Climate Educator’s Network: MP Vandana Chavan

Truly ensuring sustained climate literacy requires a network of passionate educators who will work with both educators and youth towards a sustainable future. To this end, I am happy to announce that this Children’s Day will see the launch of a nationwide Climate Educator’s Network (CEN).

This network will consist of dedicated educators, mentors and communicators who will guide and inspire educators to support young minds in their journey to understand and tackle climate change. The network understands that education has to undergo a radical re-imagining if it must continue to be considered a powerful means for the flourishing of our societies and planet.

Educators who will embark on being facilitators of learning about climate change will have to reconfigure their capacities. They will have to know how to turn anxiety and helplessness into useful optimism and agency. They will have to learn how to facilitate the development of creative and integrative thinking while learning to navigate the shifting sands of social and environmental change to meaningfully engage with the skills that they impart to their students.

Didactic methods that are best suited for the pursuit of individual success will no longer work to teach for and about climate change. These educators will therefore need to have unorthodox and transformative learning experiences themselves, to shake off, as it were, their own entrenched ways of learning and teaching.

Thus, the mission of CEN, which is of and for educators, is to facilitate and contribute towards the development of climate educators and programmes so they can be central to this shaping of the minds that will decide the planet’s future. A nationwide network will facilitate the sharing of best practices and innovative teaching methods. It will consist of dedicated individuals who will receive the right training to educate the coming generations.

The groundwork for climate action began in 2007 when we engaged with the corporate sector, communities and colleges. With these learnings, the Climate Warriors programme was launched last year as a grassroots movement, where we engaged with local schools, colleges, and communities. While the youth brought creativity and idealism, we knew it was teachers and educators who could truly elevate the science and significance of such a programme. Together, they could be a formidable force for positive change.

Schools in Pune embraced the programme with enthusiasm, and in addition to absorbing the intricacies of climate change in theory, they also ventured into the domain of practical solutions to improve their immediate environment. In just the last year, thousands of school children transformed into Climate Champions and helped set up ‘School Climate Councils’ in their institutions. This dedication amongst schools led the programme to grow and reach the city colleges as well, with youth leaders driving debate, discussion and ideation on climate change solutions.

Bolstered by this success, we are now ready to take the Climate Warriors programme to every corner of our great nation. We are also going to recognise ‘Climate Buddies’ in various colleges. The urgency of the climate crisis is undeniable, and to mitigate its impacts, our efforts must transcend geographical boundaries.

(As told to Anuradha Mascarenhas)