Climate Change to Become Teaching Materials in Schools
Thursday, 14 January, 2010 | 11:19 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Students from kindergarten to high school will get climate change teaching materials in class. The materials are developed from Climate4Classrooms (C4C), formulated by the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society, England. Besides Indonesia, the British Council distributes C4C materials to students in China, Mexico and Great Britain.

C4C is not a separate subject so it will not change the curriculum. “It could be used to develop education for sustainable development/ESD material,” said Fasli Jalal, National Education Deputy Minister when opening the “C4C Material Socialization Seminar” yesterday in Jakarta.

One example, Fasli said, was in Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, where there is a subject about natural resources utilization for nature preservation or as an economic resource. In mathematics, for example, students could count the rise of earth temperature, sea surface heat and the size of soon to be submerged coast.


According to Keith Davies, British Council Indonesia Country Director, the ESD approach will not only increase student’s knowledge.”But it will also form their thought and behavior patterns.” The C4C are multi subjects and can be conveyed by teachers in any discipline.They are also across-subject, which means they are integrated with numerous school subjects.


There are two parts of C4C teaching materials in Indonesia. First, there is the online materials, which are composed by the British Council and two agencies in England and can be accessed in http://www.climate4classrooms.org/ or o.http://www.climate4classrooms.org.id/. The second are by composed by the British Council with trainers and teachers under the National Education Department.


Besides three workshop and seminars, the team will test the materials in several schools. After that, said Nita Murjani, British Council Climate Security consultant, they could be widely used by teachers and schools in all Indonesia. Amanda Katili deemed the materials strategic because they could create initiatives to address climate change on individual levels. "Because of this, students must be introduced to the issues and their solutions," said Amanda, Head of Climate Change National Council Information Unit and Coordinator of the Climate Project Indonesia.

l UNTUNG WIDYANTO