Education (Environment and Sustainable Citizenship) Bill [HL]

Baroness D'Souza Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 16th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness D'Souza (CB) [V]]

My Lords, our education system teaches science and geography without a link to social and community responsibility and action. How does this help to further citizenship in our 14 to 18 year-olds? The division between these subjects, concepts and approaches in no way empowers or inspires young people, and there is an urgent gap that needs to be filled in the short term if we are to nurture the next generation to take on responsibility for protecting the environment.

The young are intensely aware of the threats we and past generations have allowed to become real, if only because they are liable to suffer the catastrophic effects of our negligence. But we do not as yet know what skills are needed in the immediate future to bolster the worldwide movement to quite literally save our planet. Knowledge, skills and attitudes are the structures upon which change will come about. In recent years there has been a marked surge in requests for classroom resources and programmes that bring together climate action with citizenship skills, as reported by the Our Shared World coalition.

Young Citizens, of which I am president, strives to meet some of this demand by providing a range of resources. For example, the most recent mock G7 pack challenged 14 to 18 year-olds to take part in a mock summit debating the issue of ocean action. Over 400 schools took part, reaching over 35,000 pupils. This was warmly welcomed by those teachers involved, as are Young Citizens climate change lessons. These form part of the Young Citizens resources and are among the top 10 downloaded programmes nationally. There can be no doubt that there is a wide audience for guidance and resources in the general field of environmental protection and young citizenship.

But despite further valiant efforts from the NGO sector to provide these resources, teachers continue to struggle to deliver the topic of climate action and sustainability effectively, and this arises because there is no clear statutory requirement or framework. I therefore warmly congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth, for seizing the opportunity to close the gap by amending Sections 78(1) and 80(1) of the Education Act 2002 and insisting on sustainable citizenship education to become a mandatory part of the curriculum in all schools.

The fact that we are debating this today in the last of the Private Member’s Bill slots is of course welcome, but it perhaps suggests that the clear message of the Bill and the need for urgent implementation has not as yet elicited full government support. I fervently hope that the Bill proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Knight, will proceed to Committee and well beyond.