Tribune News Network
Doha
To help young people advocate sustainability in the field of education and encourage greater environmental awareness in their schools, the Earthna Center for a Sustainable Future brought together students, administrators and educators at the 2023 Eco-Schools Congress.
Held at Doha College on Sunday as part of Qatar Sustainability Week 2023, the event put students at front-and-center of the environmental agenda by providing them with the opportunity to celebrate and share the activities and initiatives they have undertaken as part of the programme in their own schools.
The congress featured speakers from the Ministry of Education, ExxonMobil and Earthna about a variety of topics, including biodiversity, the importance of the environment and marine life.
Dr Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, executive director of Earthna, reflected on the value of engaging young people in environmental discussions, saying: “The Congress is a valuable opportunity to gather students, teachers and leaders from participating schools to build on and celebrate the continued success of the Eco-Schools programme, which has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
“Education plays a crucial role in helping people understand why protecting nature, tackling climate change and living sustainably is important. By fostering their connectivity to the environment at school, we can ensure that young people respect our planet and are empowered to take action to deal with the evolving challenges we face.”
The Eco-Schools programme – led locally by Earthna, a member of Qatar Foundation – is the world’s largest sustainable schools’ initiative, coordinated world-wide by the Foundation for Environmental Education.
With over 20 million students and 1.4 million educators participating internationally and 40,000 students and 50 schools in Qatar. The programme aims to create climate-smart students who are equipped with environmental knowledge and offers opportunities for them to lead positive change at their schools to reduce their carbon footprints and nurture environments surrounding them and their communities.
Hannah Smith, eco-coordinator at Doha College, said: “Doha College joined the programme nine years ago and integrated the curriculum in our primary/secondary school. Since then, we have seen a significant increase in students’ general awareness of and engagement with their environment and the natural world. We’ve also seen marked improvements in their analytical skills and action-plan development capabilities.”
Ruba Hinnawi, technical lead at Earthna, said: “Qatar is making great strides in the field of environmental education and the Eco-Schools programme is clearly having a positive impact on students. Alongside this, work to embed sustainably focused education as a whole school approach and not as an activity or as a chapter in the curriculum will ensure that future generations are well-informed, confident in their ability to take positive action and dedicated to supporting a sustainable and environmentally conscious community.”
