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State of the Education Report for India 2023
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) New Delhi Regional Office launched the fifth edition of its annual flagship report, Seeds of Change - UNESCO 2023 State of the Education Report for India on Education to address Climate Change.
This year’s report delves into the role of education in tackling the increasingly complex and intensifying challenges posed by climate change. India, like many parts of the world, continues to bear witness to the dire consequences of climate change through climate disasters and biodiversity losses. Education’s full potential to shape a generation that understands the gravity of this urgent issue and equip them with the tools to combat it must be realized now.
The National Education Policy 2020 underscores the importance of making environmental education an integral part of school curricula at all stages. In order to address climate change in India, the Ministry of Education strongly believes in the role that education can play in resolving impacts of climate change. This report by UNESCO is very timely as it comes at a time when India is making significant strides in working on the issue of climate change.
Education is a transformational tool in our fight against climate change – when we know better, we can do better. Educational systems must adapt to equip younger generations with the knowledge, skills and competencies to prepare them for the impacts of climate change. This year’s UNESCO State of the Education Report for India is dedicated to the pivotal role of education in addressing climate change. We can see from the research that India has already taken some significant steps in this direction, and in doing so, is helping to promote sustainable and long-term solutions to this global challenge.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) commitment to addressing climate change through school education aligns seamlessly with the vision of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The NCERT is delighted to know that the UNESCO New Delhi Regional Office has developed this report on the pivotal theme of education to address climate change and I trust this report will be an informative guide for programmes directed towards climate change education.
In 2023, India ranked eighth out of 59 countries and the European Union (collectively accounting for 92% of global greenhouse gas emissions) on climate performance according to the Climate Change Performance Index, rising two spots from the previous year. The country’s new National Curriculum Framework revised in 2023 mentions climate change 52 times. Today, India is a country well-suited for an exploration of climate education innovations, and UNESCO’s report highlights its best practices and future opportunities to do just that.
UNESCO - has long promoted the mobilization of intersectoral partnerships, political commitments, and youth empowerment as key drivers for fully leveraging education in building a greener and more sustainable future. Its global programme, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), contributes to this end by laying the foundation for global collaboration and policy innovation. Additionally, the Greening Education Partnership (GEP), launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2022, provides a practical framework for education stakeholders to take further action and UNESCO serves as the secretariat to the Greening Education Partnership (GEP).
To date, 80 Member States have joined the Partnership, for which UNESCO serves as the secretariat with strong commitment to green education systems, structured around four pillars of transformative education:
Greening schools
Greening curriculum
Greening teacher training and education systems’ capacities
Greening communities
The four pillars of the GEP are used as a guide with which the report analyzes India’s state of education to address climate change. The report is a synergy between UNESCO’s globally informed framework and the local expertise cultivated by the research team from the Centre for Environmental Education, India who authored this report.
The report concludes with ten concrete recommendations for education sector stakeholders, which we hope will facilitate immediate actions to enhance education’s role in addressing climate change. We also hope that the recommendations will inspire stakeholders in the environmental sector to further engage with education in their policy initiatives.
The ten recommendations are:
Emphasize the urgent need for collective action to address climate change through education
Include a climate change education component in all development policies
Integrate climate change education at all stages of education
Support educational institutions to be green and climate-ready
Embed climate change perspectives into green skills and vocational education programmes
Empower teachers with comprehensive climate change education training and resources
Engage with the youth to build a green future
Incorporate local and traditional knowledge that supports low-carbon lifestyles in climate change education
Promote partnerships to foster innovations in climate change education
Strengthen and create education-centred portals to provide reliable information on climate change
The launch event also showcased an engaging exhibition highlighting various initiatives taken to develop education to address climate change in India.
UNESCO New Delhi Regional Office extends its gratitude to UNICEF India, British Council India, and the Mobius Foundation for their support and cooperation.
To illustrate the report in an accessible manner, the following audio-visual package is also available free of copyright on UNESCO New Delhi’s YouTube channel:
Summary video underlining the recommendations of the report
Short capsules highlighting the key recommendations of the report
