Dr. David Sengeh, the highly commended Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, informed the world during the COP26 that his team at the Ministry is working relentlessly on making education on climate change accessible to all categories of pupils from primary right through secondary.
He made that disclosure in a discussion forum with some climate change leaders and activists, informing them that there has already been the inclusion of climate education and environment on the basic education curriculum, and work is now being advanced to make it present also in the secondary curriculum. He also mentioned that a focus on climate and gender is a Government priority enhanced by a recent cabinet decision.
The Minister further revealed that his team is currently working on developing a five-year Education Sector Plan (ESP) which starts next year and is aimed at improving education service delivery.
During the discussion, he promised to get to his team as soon as possible to include a section on climate action in the ESP using a comprehensive whole school and society approach thereby enabling the country to commit to climate action through resilience, response, climate justice, and science.
Dr. Sengeh further elaborated on the fact that so many actors (both State and non-state actors) have been called upon to play a role within the sector, as well as going across the country to engage citizens in their roles to climate action. He reiterated that if the action plan must be responsive, it has to include other key players within the governance structure such, as the Ministry of Environment, Commission on Civic Education, Teacher Training institutions, and the Disaster Management Agency among others.
This comes up as Sierra Leone scored within the top 20 of 95 country policies analyzed for climate education ambition. Sierra Leone is 1 of less than 12 countries whose NDC highlights the importance of climate change education & among a handful of nations that positions children & youth as a priority group.
