Italy to make climate change study compulsory in schools

Gavin Jones reports on the breaking news that Italy will require students to study climate change in school in his article, “Italy to make climate change study compulsory in schools“. According to Lorenzo Fioramonti, Italy’s Education Minister, Italy will become the first country to require schoolchildren to examine climate change and sustainable energy next year. Fioramonti is known in Italy to be one of the heads of the Italian green-policy and was censured last year for telling kids to engage in climate change protests rather than attending school. Every subject in Italian schools will be intertwined with sustainability and the fight for climate change.

As Fioramonti said, “the entire ministry is being changed to make sustainability and climate the centre of the education model. 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.” Italy’s bold move to focus their educational system on climate change may be perceived as extreme and radical. However with closer examination, it is actually a very rational decision.

As the growing climate change problem accelerates, it has grown to become the biggest issue in recent time. In turn, it is logical that schools start to increase their focus on this issue. The world needs innovators to combat climate change for decades to come. Those innovators and leaders can be created and developed in the educational system. However, if we don’t focus on climate change and sustainability in the classroom, it will be a lot more difficult to develop these leaders.

To read Gavin Jones‘s article in Reuters, click here: “Italy to make climate change study compulsory in schools“.