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Covid-19 crisis and the Life-Principle of Learning

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As a teacher, I believe that the first principle of education is the affirmation and celebration of life. Life is precious and every bit worth preserving and honouring. Little wonder, here is the emphatic command of the King Himself on behalf of Life, Milu Rinpoche: ‘Not a single life should be lost to coronavirus’.

The whole world is coming around!

All our teaching and learning will go only so far and no further if this basic principle of education is missing. As unusual as the current situation is, it may provide a welcome opportunity to re-discover the fundamental goal of education – that is Sherig – meaning ‘deep learning’. We will then be able to locate the core purpose of education as it ought to be.

The scourge of the coronavirus has forced education systems around the world to find alternative ways of teaching the students and engaging them meaningfully during these uncertain periods of home-stay while at the same time hoping to ‘cover the sacrosanct syllabus’!

The Ministry of Education has formulated versatile plans and our fellow-teachers are making valiant efforts to marshal technology to reach out to their students. All this is as it ought to be in the given ongoing situation. And, the results, I would like to believe, must match the inputs.

In the unlikely event that current public security interventions warrant extension, an additional option could require the students to explore diverse and original formats to represent their previous year’s or semester’s learning and submit credible samples of work for assessment at the end of the designated period.

Knowledge is power but how knowledge is internalised and represented is success.

This alternative would provide greater diversity in learning and in representing what is learnt, free learning from undue dependence on expensive gadgets especially in disadvantaged areas, relieve teachers to focus on more purposeful support and monitoring, and build greater integrity in learning.

Above all, such alternatives would emphasise depth over breadth, insights over information, quality over quantity, education over qualification, among other advantages.

The intent of Every Village a School: Every Home a Classroom, and Educating for Gross National Happiness initiatives was to pave the way for learning blessed with integrity.

For now though, precious Life is absolute Priority Number 1.

We are all in it together… in our efforts, in prayers, in our hope…

Thakur S Powdyel
Former Minister of Education in Bhutan, Starter of Green School in Bhutan

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Coronavirus and EE. Situation, proposals, perspectives: the debate is open

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Environmental Education is in quarantine too.
What are we learning from this crisis? What is the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on several activities? And how can environmental education help address this and other crises? What are the best practices for continuing to do environmental education using the Internet and e-learning? Is it necessary for schools and universities to be more focused on social and ecological sustainability? What are the prospects for the future? What are we going to do when the emergency is over, and the fear has passed? Will everything come back as before? What will have changed for the better or for the worse? Is there a risk in the future of a further reduction in the funds available for environmental education and the Green New Deal?

The WEEC Network opens the debate on these and other questions, to try to better understand the situation of environmental education in all countries in the days of Coronavirus.

Send us news, comments, stories, proposals. We will publish them on the WEEC network website.

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Coronavirus Covid-19 Crisis: EE is a fundamental tool to build resilience

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The world environmental education network (WEEC) is close to everyone in these long months who are experiencing painful moments and a situation of social isolation all over the world.

For teachers at schools and universities, the pandemic means that they have to give up their relationship with millions of young students. Online courses are a remedy that cannot replace the educational relationship, and there is a digital divide that increases the disadvantage of people living in socio-economic conditions, thus creating even greater educational poverty.

Measures to tackle the infection also deprive young people and adults of the opportunity to go outdoors, go to natural parks, take advantage of museums, theatres, libraries and other educational opportunities.

For environmental education, all this is a heavy brake: the Coronavirus crisis paralyses all environmental education activities.

At the same time, today the environmental education also has a more significant task. The origin of the pandemic and its impacts, which mainly affect people weakened by a polluted environment and unhealthy lifestyles, remind everyone of the importance of restoring the balance of the planet upset by global warming and the destruction of Nature.

Environmental education has a pivotal role and is a crucial tool to build resilience in the face of disasters and catastrophes, natural or made by humans.

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WEEC 2023: the Call for Bids is open

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Who will be the next lucky one to win the chance to host the 12 WEEC congress?
The Call for Bids to submit your application is officially open, send us an Expression of Interest (EOI) before 31st July 2020.

Please ask for the official application form to: secretariat@weecnetwork.staging.19.coop

Deadline to submit the application: 31 July 2020

The Permanent Secretariat would like to remind you that only the public or private non-profit organizations (universities, foundations, associations, …) can apply the candidacy of their own country as the seat of the 12th WEEC in 2023.

The winner will be assigned indicatively by 31st December 2020.

The candidatures will be assessed mostly according to the following criteria:

1. Having preferably close relationships with the WEEC congresses and the Network in the past, and, in any case, joining the Network and endorsing its mission, vision and strategy.
2. Guaranteeing the quality of the contents and the cultural project of the Congress, in continuity and total agreement with the heritage and the spirit of previous Congresses and in close cooperation with the Permanent Secretariat that will supervise and co-chair the congress.
3. Designing the final call for the congress and the programme according to the guidelines and the advice of the Secretariat and the International Socio-Scientific Committee established by the Secretariat.
4. Demonstrating they have relevant experience in the field of environmental education.
5. Demonstrating they have adequate experience in organizing events at local, national, regional, and international levels.
6. Demonstrating they have adequate congress facilities.
7. Demonstrating they are skilled in creating networks at different levels and getting various institutions and organizations (national authorities, local institutions, Higher, Secondary and Primary education institutions, parks, museums, NGOs, mass media, etc.) to be involved in the organization and participation to the Congress.
8. Demonstrating their ability to ensure broad national and international participation at the Congress.
9. Engaging to strengthen the WEEC International Network, inter alia by allocating a budget for the network’s activities.
10. Demonstrating they can mobilize the necessary resources at the local and national level (and possibly at the regional and international level as well) to guarantee the financial sustainability of the Congress.
11. Demonstrating their commitment to contain the costs of participation to the Congress and facilitate the participation of people from disadvantaged countries or categories (e.g. young people and students), by reducing the costs of participation and overnight stays as much as possible.
12. Engaging to offer sponsorships to an adequate number of delegates from developing countries (if the bidder is in a developed country).
13. Guaranteeing the cultural diversity and facilitating participation, also thanks to the use of several languages as English, French and Spanish at least both for the web site and during the Congress.
14. Guaranteeing the ecological consistency of the Congress by taking every measure to minimize the ecological/carbon footprint of the event and assuring its socio and eco-sustainability both as venues and as other aspects (i.e. accommodation, social program outside, and so on).
15. Accepting the time schedule proposed by the Permanent Secretariat.

The 12th WEEC in 2023 will be assigned indicatively by 31st December 2020.

Official announce of the 12th WEEC: at 11th WEEC 2021 in Prague (Czech Republic), during the closing ceremony.

E-mail: secretariat@weecnetwork.staging.19.coop

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Call for submissions: selected papers form the 10WEEC

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Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, 10WEEC Opening Ceremony

The Tenth World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) was recently held in Bangkok, Thailand, and was organized under the title theme of Local and Global Connectivity. The Local Organizing Committee for the congress was the Faculty of Environment, Kasetsart University (Thailand) in cooperation with the WEEC Permanent Secretariat (Italy). We would like to thank you for your participation in this important international meeting.

The success of the congress has been well documented with more than 1000 attendees and several UN agencies participating. Attendees hailed from many over 70 countries and presented papers across sub-themes embracing a diversity of approaches in the conceptualization and implementation of EE worldwide. Many attendees remarked that the cultural aspects of the congress were especially timely and that the practice of inviting educators (both formal and informal) to dialogue with policy makers and academics is important.

Papers selected for inclusion in this peer reviewed volume will focus on the multidisciplinarity of EE. In addition, submissions will have been previously accepted for presentation at the Bangkok meeting and address one or more of the interconnected congress sub-themes. Submissions can be directed towards an educator or researcher audience (or both) but should involve original research or curriculum development work. All submissions for the volume must be written in English.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

The first stage of the submission process will be to indicate your willingness to have your abstract considered for inclusion in this edited and peer reviewed volume. To be considered, please send a brief email to the lead editor (Dr. David Zandvliet, dbz@sfu.ca and cc’d to the Conference Chair: Prof Surat Bualert Surat.b@ku.ac.th) and include your original abstract submission ID from the congress, a three hundred word (max) edited abstract, and a brief listing of the relevant congress subthemes. Please also include a full list of authors and their relevant institutional affiliations in this communication.
In the second stage of the process the editorial team will review the abstracts submitted, and invite full submissions from selected author teams for the next stage of peer review. Unfortunately, not all abstracts submitted will be invited to present their work in this volume, however, those not accepted could alternatively be considered for publication in other venues. Abstracts selected for an invitation to the book project will receive an email letter from the editorial team. This letter this will include further information about page limits, submission format, etc. so that the full submissions can be edited and submitted in a timely manner for the next stage of the process.

In the final stage of the process, the editorial team will provide detailed feedback to author teams regarding their full paper submission in preparation for final copy editing of the publication to the publisher. After a final external peer review of the entire volume, the final book will then be published as part of the Culture and Environment Series with DIO Press (New York). Finally, as we hope to have the entire submission and review process conducted within the next 6-8 months, it is important that authors respect the timelines for transition of their submitted work to the final published volume. Appended is a detailed timeline with key dates that proposals will need to meet for inclusion in the publication.

SUBMISSION TIMELINE

Email your ID, abstract and proposal summary to the editor. (dbz@sfu.ca) Mar. 1st, 2020
Invited author teams are notified and given submission requirements. Mar. 15th, 2020
Full chapter drafts are sent to the editor in preparation for peer review. May. 1st, 2020
Editorial feedback on full proposals will be returned to author teams. June. 15th , 2020
Final copy-edited chapter drafts will be submitted to the editor for compiling. Sept. 15th, 2020
Full peer reviewed volume will be submitted to the Publisher. Oct. 30th, 2020

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Be giants in the education work you do: the request of young people at 10WEEC

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Around the world, young people are marching for action on climate change.
Around the world, students are striking.
Around the world, the youth are protesting for a better world.
Young people are standing up and asking to be heard. This is what democracy is about. Being heard.

Dear Congress organisers, Her Royal Highness, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, WEEC Committee, and conference delegates, thank you for this opportunity to stand up, speak up, and be heard. Thank you for this opportunity to be a part of this 2019 World Environmental Education Congress.

I am speaking on behalf of 68 students and teachers from Thailand, Taiwan, Nepal, Japan, Philippines and India. In a way, I am also speaking on behalf of all young people in those six countries and around the world.
It is an honour to have the chance to present the views of young people to this Congress.

I want to thank you all for the work you have done and the work you are doing in environment and education to make the world better. It is not young people Vs old people. The Earth is one country and we humans are its citizens. We are in this together and we youth want to help heal and protect the Earth.

Yesterday, students from the Youth Camp came up with messages for some of the main groups in this room.

To the people from schools and universities, please teach students to become aware of the problems and how to help. Then students can use their knowledge and skills to make the better world.
To community organisations, please keep doing what you are doing to care for people and the environment.
To the scientists and engineers, we ask you to keep doing good science and keep innovating new designs and materials for the betterment of the planet and the people.
To the business people, we ask you to use your platform as a foundation to promote environmental awareness and action.
To the politicians here today, please make good decisions so young people can enjoy being young and not worried about the future. We don’t want to protest. We want to be children.
Finally, to everyone here, please work together. A sustainable world depends on communication and collaboration of all groups in society.

Sir Isaac Newton, a famous scientist from the 17th century, once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

We students at the Youth Camp will leave school soon. We will go to universities, we will go into the community, and we will go into the workforce. We ask you…

Please be giants.

Please be giants in the science and education work you do.

Please build a strong sustainability foundation that we can stand upon. Please be sustainability giants with strong shoulders that will help us see further and continue your work in building a world worth living in.

Please be giants.

Phansa Duangtip

Plutaluang Wittaya School, Chonburi Province, Thailand

see photos and video of the Youth Camp

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Improvement of the environment and natural resources: the goal of the Chaipattana Foundation

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May it please, Your Royal Highness, May I, Sumet Tantivejkul, Secretary-General of the Chaipattana Foundation, humbly request Your Royal Highness permission to deliver the introductory Remarks for the 10th World Environmental Education Congress. Your Royal Highness, On behalf of the Chaipattana Foundation and distinguished participants, I am greatly honored to express our deepest appreciation to Your Royal Highness for graciously presiding over the 10th World Environmental Education Congress today.

On this remarkable event, I have a privilege to announce that we are delighted to serve as one of the organizers that made this congress happen for the first time in Asia. It is also a wonderful experience for us to work with other two co-organizers, Kasetsart University and the World Environment Education Network. Established by His Majesty Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Chaipattana Foundation has served, for 30 years, to provide prompt, timely and necessary responses to problems affecting the Thai people through various development projects. The Faculty of Environment Kasetsart University has long been providing vital assistance to the Chaipattana Foundation particularly in the areas of environment. Therefore, this serves as an excellent opportunity to host the Congress together with our co-organizers whose expertise will guide us through the worldwide discussions and exchanges of ideas that will lead to sustainability of the local and global connectivity.

The Chaipattana Foundation’s great concern has always been on the improvement of the environment and natural resources. Therefore, various royal development projects aiming at improving the quality of soil and water have been established around the nation that apply simple, affordable, and practical methods. Among these projects is the Laem Phak Bia Environmental Study Research and Development Project or LERD in Petchaburi Province. The main purpose is to provide environmental knowledge for local communities and organizations on how to implement simple natural methods to treat solid waste and wastewater. Extensive research and experiments to make the natural methods become more effective have been conducted by an academic team from the Faculty of Environment, Kasetsart University.

Throughout the years of implementation, the results on the application of the natural methods have been satisfactory and the LERD Project has become internationally recognized. Each year, the Project received numerous visitors from every part of the world. Collaborations with several academic institutions in the national and international levels were also established.

As the world is becoming smaller and our common future has become a common challenge, the Chaipattana Foundation is confident that the knowledge sharing is the key. The sharing that will happen during the conference will bring forth diverse bodies of knowledge from around the world to help formulate guidelines that will help ease the environmental problems that are becoming more severe. I personally believe that this meaningful congress will eventually play a significant part that helps our common future gear towards sustainability.

On this auspicious occasion, with Your Royal Highness’ gracious permission, I have a great honor to respectfully invite Your Royal Highness to graciously deliver an opening address and to preside over the opening ceremony of the 10th World Environmental Education Congress for all the success of this remarkable event.

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Education is the key to create significant changes

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It is a privilege to preside over the opening ceremony of the 10th World Environmental Education Congress hosted by the Chaipattana Foundation and Kasetsart University in collaboration with the World Environmental Education Network. I am delighted to welcome such a large and diverse audience which is gathered here today.

It is a great pleasure to witness the commitment of the international community to fight the increasing degradation of our environment. I believe that we are here today because we all need to understand the fragile state of our environment and the importance of its protection. It is apparent that everything around us is interconnected. We will lose our balance, if we break the chain of nature’s connectivity, and the impact to human beings and all living things would be tremendous.

One great effect that may occur will concern food. To keep up with the increasing world population, there is a greater demand for food. Natural resources such as soil and water are essential foundation for food production. Therefore, sustainable use and preservation of these resources is crucial in order for the food system to function properly. If the soil becomes infertile or the water becomes polluted, producing sufficient and good quality food to feed the global population would be another challenge.

The Chaipattana Foundation has conducted many projects related to environmental improvement and also in connection with the implementation of standardized food production for consumption. One example is the seed production project that emphasizes producing the finest quality seeds because we truly believe that by producing quality seeds, we also produce quality yields. In order to do so, seeds need to be grown in a good environment. This project focuses on the production of quality seeds with zero use of chemical substances, causing no harm to natural resources. In addition, the use of chemical pesticide was replaced by using natural methods. At present, this project benefits local villagers covering three provinces in different parts of the country.

Another example is the Tea Seed Oil Plant and Oil Crops Research and Development Center. The Chaipattana Foundation introduced tea seed cultivation that involves the process of reforestation in the northern part of Thailand in an attempt to restore arid land and to enable the local people to have stable incomes and to create vocational opportunities in a sustainable manner. The quality of tea seed oil is also rich in nutritional properties, which is beneficial for daily consumption.

Most of the projects under the responsibility of the Chaipattana Foundation including these two aforementioned projects aim at educating people. The interested public is welcome to learn from us. I believe that education is the key to create significant changes and it is best to educate the younger generation. Thus, many of our projects try to provide knowledge and understanding, as well as to raise the people’s awareness regarding environmental issues because us, human beings, are one of the factors that intentionally or unintentionally damaged the balance of nature. This congress, I believe, serves as an excellent platform that engages a diverse audience particularly the younger generation, to educate, and to give a floor to us all to share our experiences, case studies, and stories of success that have occured in different parts of the world.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all those whose dedication and commitment have made this conference happen. I would also like to convey my appreciation to every concerned organization that has contributed to assuring the success of the conference. Without all of your support, organizing this significant event would not have been possible.

With these remarks, may I now open the 10th Environmental Education Congress. I wish the congress every success and all that the participants will have a pleasant time in Thailand.

Thank you very much.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

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“It is not enough to just say you will do it, but you have to say we will do it”

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During the WEEC2019 conference in the Bangkok city of Thailand we had a chance to meet Niclas Svenningsen who was really kind and showed great interest into our being there and interview.

Just after his speech in the opening ceremony, We, timidly, went next to him and asked him if he could spare some time to us for an interview. He, sincerely and very welcomingly, accepted our offer and started to find a quiter place to help us. At that moment all of our hesitations faded away.

We proposed him a couple of questions about environmental education, communication and global connectivity which are the main themes of 10th World Environmental Education Congress held in Thailand and he sincerely answered all of our questions. In short, It was an informative interview for everone. Here you can find the details.

Hallo Mr Svenningsen, Could please you present yourself for YRE students?

«My name is Niclas Svenningsen. I am working for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. I am responsible for our work on what we call as Global Climate Action, which is basically everything that is not so much negotiations, but engaging everybody else into this fight against the climate change».

In your speech, you mentioned that you conduct a programme called Action for Climate Empowerement of UNFCC. Can you explain the programme more in details?

«Action for Climate empowerement is something that has been in UNFCCCs since the very begining of 1992 and it contains six elements: Education and Training, public information, awareness and Access to engagement and then also international cooperation, but it’s really about the education and to have everybody involve in climate action basically».

“This is a war that you can not win with soldiers or bombs”. What do you think about today’s environmental situation? What are your expectations for the future?

«Well, it’s a big question. Today’s environmental situation could be better. We are at war against our planet. This is a war that you can not win with soldiers or bombs. You need to have intelligence and you need to work together. I’m optimistic, I think we can win this fight… I think we can do something about it, yet we need leaders who lead».

How can the environmental education be widespread to all around the World?

«That’s what I hope to learn from this conference. Every government under the Paris agreement, they have a commitment, a climate action plan. And that climate action plan also needs to include an element on ACE (Action for Climate Empowerment). They have to say how they are going to implement ACE. Today we need more ACE focal points. These focal points work with an industry of economy, infrastructure, transport, energy, the whole government and then with the rest of the society. We work for government to make them put effort on it . It is not enough to just say you will do it but you have to say we will do it».

Do you think the environmental movement efforts of today are enough? Why/ Why not?

«I can tell you that it’s getting better. I think that environmental movement have been there for many many years. However, I assume that the voice that has been out there through “Firdays For Future”, Greta Thunberg and many many others have really made all of us unconfortable for politicians which is good. It shouldn’t be confortable to not to do something, it should be unconfortable to do something. So we need more but we are improving.

Alin Aşım(15)

Ali Özek(16)

Young Reporters for the Environment (Turkey)

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YRE: an interview to Gunter Pauli at 10WEEC

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When we were about to leave the conferance hall, we heard someone talking enthusiastically. We sat back to our seats. It didn’t take much time of the speaker to catch our attention. He was Gunter Pauli the author of the book The Blue Economy. We would like to share some highligting points from his speech.

“Tell the people three-minutes stories , they will ask for more.”

Everyone loves stories if we turn the most difficult scientific subjets into stories by using childhood games that we all played outdoor. Childrens mustn’t lose their fantasy . We need this fantasy to move to a vision. Plus, science should be solid. We can use children toys and games to make science concrete for them. For example we can use kites to teach gravity and ascending force.

“Now it’s time to sell the diplomas.”

We should stop whatever we are doing today because it seems that it doesn’t work as we can’t save the world as we don’t have any sustainability to the economy with old industrial errors of which the worst is the education. Because we still have mind control at schools. The biggest industry today is selling diplomas. We don’t need to be there; we should change whatever we are doing today.

“We should shift from green economy to blue economy”.

After his speech, we had a chance to talk about his book, The Blue Economy, which was translated into 34 languages. In his book he claims that green economy doesn’t work. Moreover, it is expensive as it doesn’t use what we have in nature. Sustainable economy requires new methods; blue economy which is cheap and responses to the people’s needs by using what we have in nature. We must benefit from our oceans and seas.

YRE Turkey in WEEC 2019 Thailand
By İrem Yılmaz & Mehmet Ardan

International Secretariat

Corso Moncalieri, 18
10131 Torino – Italy
tel.+39 0114366522
secretariat@weecnetwork.org

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