SOUTHEAST Asian educators discussed embedding climate change adaptation and mitigation into the basic education curricula at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Council (SEAMEC) Flagship Program 3 held on March 25. The event, hosted by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), aimed to produce learning resource packages across the region.
Maria Cristeta Cuaresma, SEARCA's senior program head of the education and collective learning department, showed the online courses that the center developed and which are offered by the University of the Philippines Open University.
Cuaresma introduced the School-plus-Home Gardens Program, which has been scaled up to School-plus-Home Garden cum Biodiversity Enhancement Enterprise (SHGBEE), focusing on biodiversity enhancement and entrepreneurship.
Malcolm Garma, Department of Education undersecretary for operations, said they "encourage educators to transform vulnerability into resilience" by integrating disaster risk and climate change in the teaching and learning process.
Representatives from the ministries of education of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, Save the Children Foundation and Oscar Lopez Center reaffirmed their view that students need to learn how to handle emergency issues arising from climate change impact.
SEAMEC is the governing council of the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization.