By: Mary Sichangi

CEMASTEA as the Continental Secretariat of the Association for Development of  Education  in  Africa’s  (ADEA)  Inter-Country Quality Node on Mathematics and Science Education (ICQN-MSE) participated in the workshop on “Educating the Educators Initiative of the Energy Transition Education Network (ETEN)”

The workshop was held from 5th to 6th July, 2022 in the United Arab Emirates under the objective of bringing together international partners  and  stakeholders  from  the  renewable energy sector to explore possibilities of working together in areas such as development and dissemination of teaching resources and raising awareness on  the  need to  enhance renewable  energy education with national curricula. The workshop was organized by the International  Renewable  Energy  Agency (IRENA) drew participants from; UNICEF-Paris, OECD, University of Colorado Boulder – USA, Ministry of Education – UAE, UNEP-India, SDG 7 Youth Constituency and Global Council, UNESCO-Bangkok, IEEE, Teach for Zimbabwe, Teach for Lebanon, and Teach for All.

A group photo of the participants held from 5^th to 6^th July, 2022 in the United Arab Emirates

In her opening remarks,  Dr.  Nawal  Al  Hosany,  Permanent  Representative of the UAE to IRENA reiterated the importance of integrating renewable energy in educational systems transition. She urged participants to consider institutionalizing RE into education with focus on achieving: sustainable communities empowered and motivated youth, holistic view by educators on the reality we face of the energy crisis  &  creation  of  jobs  in  energy  sector.  The deliberations revealed lack of policy and sustainability curriculum framework for global adaptation by countries. The need for a framework to guide on priority STEM skills, learning outcomes, content and dissemination to the global audiences

A review study on curriculum  frameworks  for  100  countries revealed 47% of countries whose frame do not mention the term climate change. Majority of teachers believe that it is important to teach about climate change, but only 40% were confident and 20% can explain how to take action on the related impact. In conclusion, there is also need to mainstream the UNESCO’s greening education flagship projects in Renewable Energy (RE) in education policies, curriculum, teacher training and in educational institutions.