Environment

Italy to become first country to make climate change education compulsory in schools

07 Nov, 2019

Italian schools to devote one hour a week to studying climate change from next year.

Italy will become the first country in the world to make learning about climate change compulsory for school students, with 33 hours a year being incorporated into the national curriculum from September 2020.

The move will require students in Italian public schools to study climate change and sustainability for one hour a week, as part of plans by Italy's education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti.

Students across all grades will have environmental education built into their existing civics classes, with other subjects including geography, maths and physics being taught from the perspective of sustainability.

Fioramonti, of the populist Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) said: "I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school."

A panel of international scientific experts is reportedly advising Italy's environment ministry on how to redevelop the national curriculum with regard to climate change and sustainability.