At the weekend, I heard myself say: "Well, I don't expect that the Greens will be particularly interested in environmental education." After that, I thought I'd better find out. Their education policy can be found here.
In addition to an emphasis on the promotion of outdoor and physical activity and learning about the environment at first hand, this is what they say about environmental education:
"Schools will undertake an energy audit of the school and demonstrate, annually, how they are reducing their carbon footprint and contributing to sustainability locally. They will provide environmental education through academic and practical work. This will include encouraging children to attend their local community school so they are within walking distance in urban areas. Schools will be required to provide their own recycling and compost facilities. In this time of rising energy prices schools will be provided with grants to retro-fit their buildings with insulation and install solar panels, solar water heating, be well insulated and where appropriate have wind turbines. They will also have rainwater and grey-water flushing systems. This is particularly important in schools so that young people accept and expect these as part of normal daily life."
and ...
"The Green Party believes that Further Education colleges should be publicly owned by Local Authorities and funded at the same rate as secondary schools and be subject to the same requirements as schools regarding sustainability, environmental education and health."
The first paragraph is a grab-bag of activities, most of which are not bad in themselves; it's just disappointing to find that the Green's environmental education isn't framed by a coherent conceptual vision. If the Greens can't do that, what use are they?
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