NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Magzum Mirzagaliyev announced plans to establish a coordinating council on environmental education, the ministry’s press service reported on Aug. 18.
Photo credit: Zakon.kz.
The council will include the representatives of government agencies, public figures, educational institutions, non-governmental and international organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the organization responsible for disposal fees (ROP), the fund for the development of socially significant initiatives and other organizations.
Ecology courses will also be introduced in schools. But the minister noted that environmental education should not be limited only to school teaching.
“The society, government agencies, teachers, experts and parents should work together to promote environmental education. Due to this, the ministry organized a meeting with experts for a more detailed discussion of this issue,” said Mirzagaliyev.
Photo credit: Zakon.kz.
One of the ministry’s initiatives is to launch excursions for schoolchildren to national parks and to create a special children’s educational eco-cam for interactive teaching.
Minister of Information and Social Development Aida Balayeva said that eco-culture and eco-education should be comprehensive and it is necessary to introduce it into all spheres of life.
Environmental education is essential, said Minister of Education and Science Askhat Aimagambetov. “Value-oriented education in schools, and environmental education will become an important part of this general concept,” he added.
Earlier, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev set a task to introduce environmental education classes at schools at the July 10 government meeting.
