The Ministers of "Education" and "Environment" discuss a number of common issues and prepare for the COP 27 climate conference
Dr. Tarek Shawky, Minister of Education, and Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, held an extensive meeting to discuss a number of common issues, foremost of which is participation in the 27th edition of the Climate Change Conference COP 27 for 2022.
The meeting was attended by the Ministry of Education, Dr. Reda Hegazy, Deputy Minister for Teachers’ Affairs, Dr. Sherine Hamdi, Advisor to the Minister for Administrative Development and supervisor of the central administration for the affairs of the Minister’s office, Dr. Hanim Ahmed, Advisor to the Minister for International Relations, and from the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Ahmed Wagdy, Director of the Capacity Building Project. And Engineer Samah Saleh, responsible for sustainable development in the Minister’s office, Professor Muhammad Motamad, assistant minister for monitoring, reporting and evaluation, and Engineer Menna Samir, assistant minister for waste.
During the meeting, the two ministers reviewed ways of cooperation between the two ministries to participate in the "COP 27" climate conference, which is scheduled to be hosted in Egypt next November. Among the topics that will be raised during the conference sessions, is Egypt's experience in integrating modern environmental concepts into educational curricula.
Dr. Tariq Shawky, Minister of Education and Technical Education, stressed that the new system of Education 2.0 focuses on various environmental concepts such as climate change, biodiversity and environmental sustainability, especially in the kindergarten and primary stage, focusing on inculcating different environmental concepts, as environmental education and teaching its correct concepts in childhood from Important topics we care about.
Shawky added that the age of children in the early educational stages is the best age to inculcate these concepts in the minds of children, as well as the effect that will be stronger, explaining the need for our students to take social responsibility and integrate them into serving their environment, and this is what the General Administration of Environmental Education in the Ministry is doing.
He pointed out that we discussed organizing an international education summit during the activities of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) for 2022, with the participation of a number of education ministers from around the world.
Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, stressed during the meeting the importance of integrating school students into environmental work, especially the issue of climate change by raising awareness of the issue and organizing meetings with them, not only to confront the effects of climate change but to support the cause of sustainability, stressing that this is what Egypt has actually started from During the launch of the presidential initiative "Prepare for the Green" at the level of the Republic.
She pointed out that the Climate Change Conference is proceeding in two tracks: the negotiating track, which is the official track of the agreement, in which the focus is on technical issues that are exited from the climate conferences, and the informal track of the host country, and through this track, unofficial days for the conference were identified. These days include various topics, including adaptation, sustainable cities, women, science and technology day, youth day, civil society and others.
The Minister of Environment stressed that Egypt is keen to make the COP 27 climate conference inclusive of all parties, as Egypt adopts a new and different idea from previous climate conferences by focusing on implementation through the participation of civil and local society, youth and the private sector with ideas, solutions, innovations and experimental projects, and thus the possibility of school students participating And their innovations during the science and technology day, to be presented at the conference, announcing the readiness of the Ministry of Environment to cooperate with the Ministry of Education to motivate and support distinguished students to innovate and participate in addressing environmental problems.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Yasmine Fouad presented Dr. Tarek Shawky with a set of “educational bags” for teachers, which were prepared by the Ministry of Environment through the capacity-building project (3) in the fields of (climate change - biodiversity - environmental sustainability), where the bags are a specialized scientific guide for masters. Teachers about environmental issues and the mechanism of their teaching, activities and tools that can be used to convey information in a simplified manner to students, which contributes to their understanding of environmental issues and the formation of a positive student behavior towards nature and his eagerness to protect it and mechanisms to achieve its sustainability. Through the project, the Ministry of Environment has previously trained a group of teachers in Cairo It was agreed to develop a plan to train teachers in cooperation between the two ministries in all governorates of the Republic through the advanced programs implemented by the Ministry of Education to build the capacity of teachers, in preparation for presenting Egypt’s experience in integrating environmental issues and climate change into the education development system during Climate Conference in November.