Minister Pierre Uys, minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, has launched a special curriculum tool for teachers to assist them in dealing with climate change.
The training of a core group of teachers from across the province on the Climate Change Education and Awareness Programme started today at the Northlink College in Panorama, Cape Town, and will continue until Saturday. The programme and a teacher*s resource book were developed by the University of Cape Town*s Schools Development Unit.
Minister Uys (second from left, second row from front) with Western Cape Teachers that attended the programme
Climate change and environmental issues will form part of the school curriculum from next year and this pilot project by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning were undertaken to help teachers deal with the issues around climate change and awareness.
Minister Uys opened the three day workshop this morning.
"There is overwhelming consensus amongst experts that climate change has been accelerated through human endeavour and that extraordinary preparations are needed to ward off serious consequences. It is for this reason we have decided as Government to train and prepare our people for life style changes to mitigate matters like global warming and dependence on fossil fuel that is a key cause of the emission of greenhouse gasses", Minister Uys said.
"Even with the significant reduction of these gasses, there will still be changes to the climate."
"That this why emissions need to be contained or reduced. It is projected that temperature or extreme weather conditions, water shortages, more fires and adverse agricultural conditions will be some of the challenges we will face in the future. Therefore we start this seeding project in line with national and provincial policies to prepare our future citizens and leaders for the task at hand", Minister Uys said.
Enquiries: Cobus Grobler (media officer) 073 133 7299
Minister Uys 082 4555 144
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