Anchoring Climate Change in the Ongoing Educational Reforms in Kenya

Abstract

The entire globe is mobilizing around climate change issues while being driven by a pressing desire to take action to understand its causes and effects and to mitigate its impact. Education has been identified as one among the key interventions, motivated by the belief that it can bring about fundamental mindset shifts in not only addressing the causes but also adapting and coping with the unavoidable effects of climate change. There is, therefore, need to make the curricula of schools more responsive to climate change by integrating aspects of climate and environment, which include among others, its concepts, greenhouse emissions, protection measures and support for individual and societal climate change resilience. Kenya has been undertaking reforms in the education sector with a shift from the knowledge-based to competency-based curriculum since 2017. To what extent has the new curriculum integrated aspects of environment, climate and climate change? This paper used the existing documentary evidence to analyse the extent to which the aspects have been integrated in the curriculum for pre-primary (PP 1-2) and primary schools (Grades 1-6). It is expected that the paper will inform the curriculum review process in Kenya on the critical role of environmental education as a tool for combating climate change.