2023-06-05 16:32:41
This morning at the PRAE, the Ministers for the Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning and Education have delivered the recognitions corresponding to the 2022-2023 call for this initiative, with which the regional Executive recognizes the effort made by schools in activities education and environmental management. The act has been made to coincide with World Environment Day, an event that must serve for reflection, awareness and respect for the administration, companies and individuals in the criteria of sustainability and care for the natural environment. The 2023-2024 call will be published in September.
June 5, 2023
Castile and Leon | Ministry of the Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning
Castilla y León has numerous educational centers that carry out stable environmental education programs, in line with the objectives of the II Environmental Education Strategy, which is being evaluated this year and will be replaced by a new one at the end of the year. This document promotes specialized work with teachers and the educational community to consolidate that environmental education occupies a leading place in curricular designs.
In this line, already since 2019, by order published at the proposal of the Ministries of Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning and Education, the Board rewards the effort made by the educational centers of the Community with the seal ‘Sustainable Educational Center’ .
Today, the heads of both ministries, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones and Rocío Lucas, respectively, have delivered these distinctions to 21 new schools and institutes at the PRAE in Valladolid, also renewing the seal to 23 of the 24 that obtained it in 2019, since this environmental seal has a duration of 4 years, after which it must be renewed or not in accordance with the work carried out in that time. Thus, with the distinctions delivered today, Castilla y León already has 92 educational centers in which environmental education is a fundamental aspect.
In this sense, Suárez-Quiñones has stressed that “this stamp is not a fixed photograph, but rather it entails an environmental commitment and is evaluated every four years. For the first time, this year the evaluation of the first prizes given in 2019 has been carried out, and of those twenty-four centers, twenty-three have renewed and have maintained that environmental seal.”
For her part, the Minister of Education has highlighted that initiatives such as this demonstrate the efforts made by the Board to raise awareness in society about the importance of guaranteeing lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. “An awareness that must begin from the earliest ages and of which this ‘Sustainable Educational Center’ seal is representative of the special sensitivity that we have in our land and that is evident in our educational system,” Lucas stressed.
In short, the ‘Sustainable Educational Center’ seal is one of the most significant collaborative actions between the Ministries of the Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning and Education, whose joint action has numerous exponents such as the pilot program for the generation of new spaces outdoor learning from Environmental Education; the training ‘Reconnect with nature: environmental education resources and tools’; the MOAI program, to support and monitor the implementation of the ‘sustainable educational center’ environmental seal, which aims to train and advise teachers; the initiative for the renaturation and adaptation to climate change of school playgrounds, which will bring an investment of 4 million euros to 65 educational centers for the reform of playgrounds and common spaces, or the VENN program for visits by schoolchildren to natural spaces and the ERP.
Environmental initiatives in educational centers and with other agents.
The Junta de Castilla y León continues to work to bring environmental education closer to the classrooms of the Community. Thus, it is planned to carry out the third edition of the course ‘Reconnecting with nature: resources and tools for environmental education’, in collaboration with the ICT Teacher Training and Resource Center of Palencia. In the two previous editions, 150 teachers from Castilla y León have participated.
A new edition of these 2023-2024 awards will be convened in September 2023.
In addition, schools and institutes recognized with the ‘Sustainable Educational Center’ seal will be provided with elements for observing nature, such as binoculars, thread-counting magnifying glasses or nature guides.
The programming of the Ministry of the Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning in the field of environmental education entails activities in this matter with the Universities, the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, with those with less than that population -such as the Fuentes Claras awards recently delivered, and also the School of Mayors-, provincial councils or companies that have environmental authorization and those that are adhered to the Community Environmental Management and Audit System (EMAS).
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