Teach for Romania launches environmental education program in schools from vulnerable communities

Local non-profit Teach for Romania, with the support of the OMV Petrom Foundation, recently unveiled "Green for Generation Alpha," an environmental education program aimed at pre-school, primary, and secondary education students, focusing on understanding and relating sustainably to the environment.

The program will be implemented in 109 schools and 17 kindergartens in the vulnerable communities where Teach for Romania is active. A total of 145 teachers will work with materials developed within the program with 2,900 students.

Through addressing the major themes of climate change, the program aims to contribute to changing future adults' behaviours in the long term. It provides methods and tools for teachers regarding what they should know, be able to do, and the attitude a student should have by the end of the 8th grade to contribute to the sustainable development of the community they live in.

As part of the program, a map of competencies for students was developed, essentially a curriculum, from pre-school to the end of middle school. The competency map is aligned with the graduate profile and the school curriculum.

Each Teach for Romania teacher received an environmental education kit with the necessary materials for implementing classroom activities with students. The kits primarily contain educational materials (guides and books with activities), educational games addressing environmental protection concepts, and tools for observations and analyses (magnifying glasses or small microscopes for examining plants, insects, or other natural elements). They also include experiment sets (related to water, soil, and other environmental aspects), seeds, and pots to encourage students to grow their own plants, and information about the importance of plants in maintaining ecological balance.

The written informational materials for teachers are supported by video materials that address the importance of environmental education from the perspective of various personalities in the field of education.

"Climate changes are no longer a problem of the future. They are already here and we experience them daily through extreme climatic phenomena and visible changes around us. We can no longer postpone either personal responsibility to act or the education of children and young people in the spirit of a sustainable attitude. And this environmental education is important to be done rigorously, systematically, and sustainably. It is not enough to turn off the lights for one hour a year on Earth Day. It is vital for all teachers, regardless of the subject they teach, to join forces and do environmental education as often and as correctly as possible," Iuliana Pielmuș, CEO of Teach for Romania, said.

The "Green for Generation Alpha" program is based on the need to treat environmental education in-depth, focusing on scientific data and developing students' critical thinking and civic spirit. It hinges on the idea that environmental education, seen as critical, can be done by any teacher, and that it is not just the prerogative of science specialists.