The Transforming Education Summit
The UNESCO transforming education summit (TES) is set to take place on September 16th -19th at the UN Headquarters in NY; as UN Antonio Guiterres notes, “The Transforming Education Summit will seek to renew our collective commitment to education and lifelong learning as a pre-eminent public good.” The summit will be the culmination of a year long set of consultations, pre-summits, and online discussion
The EARTHDAY.ORG Global Education team celebrates the elevation of transformative education and life-long learning across formal, non formal, and informal sectors. However, the climate crisis threatens the underlying social and technical infrastructure of education environments, pedagogy, and outcomes. Teachers, learners, and citizens must be climate literate and equipped with the values, knowledge, and skills for an uncertain future. As a result, EARTHDAY.ORG and colleagues call upon world leaders to acknowledge and recognize the important and transformative role of the education sector in climate mitigation, adaptation, and action.
“Climate literacy is a key to developing an equitable green economy and to creating engaged citizens who are key players in building innovation, entrepreneurship, and a green consumer movement. ”The green economy is already operating at full force, Africa must take these stops if it wants to lead and benefit from the changes we will see in the coming decade says Kathleen Rogers- President EARTHDAY.ORG
On September 19th at TES, world leaders have a unique opportunity to articulate their commitments to leveraging the education sector to adaptation, mitigation, and preparedness for an uncertain future. World leaders will be given 4 minutes to state their commitments to transforming education. EDO, Youth organizations, and others demand a recognition that any commitment to education transformation must include a commitment to climate action and Climate Education
African Leaders are among those that will attend the Transforming Education Summit and should not ignore voices of Millions of Africans who are calling for Urgent Action and Commitments from world leaders to Prioritize Climate Literacy, and should show steps needed for Climate Resilience on the continent putting Climate Literacy at the forefront. Africa cannot manage to remain behind the Opportunity is now to develop curriculums and finance Climate Literacy as well as showcase Leadership at the upcoming Transforming Education Summit in New York and COP 27 in Egypt , In doing so, a new generation will be able to make the best and most environmentally informed choices on the way they live, work and participate in government while providing a climate literate workforce needed to build the new, stronger and sustainable economy vital in the 21st century. Says Derrick Mugisha- Regional Director Africa EARTHDAY.ORG
Ultimately and transformative education policy agenda, must take into account and consider the social and environmental impacts of climate change. EARTHDAY.ORG hopes TES can be a launching pad for the upcoming Climate Change COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Join our climate literacy campaign and join 300 million signatories from more than 100 countries to demand climate literacy for all learners, everywhere. Sign Petition:https://action.earthday.org/cop_26_literacy_petition This petition continues our progress from COP 26 towardS COP 27 in Egypt.
More about Our Education work and Resources can be found: https://www.earthday.org/campaign/environmental-education/
Africa work: https://www.earthday.org/africa/ Contact: Africa@earthday.org
