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In April 2022, we published our reaction to the final draft of the Department for Education’s Climate and Sustainability Strategy. When we first met ministers pre-COP26, there was no section about climate education. Thanks to Teach the Future’s tireless campaigning and efforts, it was put into the strategy and was made the first theme on the strategy. It was a strategy that, yes, we had a significant amount of input into but at the end of the day, it was the government’s choice as to what to put into the strategy and what not to. There were some positives in there but the majority of our reaction wasn’t positive at all due to the strategy’s failure to meet the necessary standards. It was indeed very concerning to see a strategy published that did not meet what the Secretary of State at the time, Nadhim Zahawi, promised.
In June 2023, the National Audit office published a report analysing the progress of and attempts by the Department of Education to implement its strategy. The overview found that the DfE’s School Rebuilding Programme will only result in 500 schools being ‘net zero carbon in operation’. 500 schools is 2% of the school estate. It also found that ‘local authorities and other responsible bodies are directly responsible for a larger proportion of the estate’ outside of the government’s original rebuilding programme. The NAO report also stated that there is a ‘mismatch between the funding allocated for this work and the ambitions of the strategy. The example it gives is the Resilient Schools Programme where the DfE reduced the project’s budget from £90.5 million to £4.6 million. That’s a reduction of nearly 95% of the budget. In line with our reaction to the strategy, the NAO also found that only from April 2023 (a year later) did the department start establishing a means of monitoring the strategy and measuring the progress of it. When it came to understanding how to improve the sustainability of a school estate, they found that the DfE ‘lacks a clear, national picture of the sustainability position of the school estate’. Not only that, but they did not understand ‘the risks that climate change poses to the sector’. This links heavily with the finding that 10,710 schools have a significant chance of flooding at least once in 75 years. Let me remind you that this report was published in June 2023.
As I glanced through the rest of the overview, it became clear that there was an obvious pattern. The DfE at the time, despite being one year into the programme, were still setting up how they were going to run the strategy, were still discussing how they were going to hold themselves and the strategy to accountability, were still developing a plan to measure the benefits from the strategy and were still trying to gain an understanding of schools and why climate change poses a risk to every single school across the country.
In December 2023, the DfE published their progress report regarding the strategy. It highlighted the improvements they have made in 4 key areas since launching the programme; international, climate education and green skills, education estate and digital infrastructure, and operations and supply chains.
I’d like to skip straight into the ‘improvements’ made regarding climate education and green skills. One of the first things mentioned is that climate change is now included in science teachers’ continuing professional development. Although it’s a start, when we talk about climate education, we don’t just talk about it within the sciences. Teachers need to be consistently trained throughout every single subject when it comes to climate change. Climate education needs to be integrated into every part of the curriculum. This links onto their progress with the Natural History GCSE. The DfE have said that they have started to develop draft content for the new GCSE and will be talking to key stakeholders in 2024 ahead of a full public consultation. As we have said previously, the Natural History GCSE should not be the main route for the DfE to provide climate education and the progress reinstates the view that the government is merely committed to providing a new GCSE and not a curriculum overhaul to provide the necessary climate education to every student.
The progress made surrounding delivering skills needed for a ‘green transition’ is indeed progress. To live in net zero society, we need green, sustainable jobs, and the government’s move to providing qualifications that will lead to such jobs is a step in the right direction. Having launched the Agriculture, Land Management and Production T-Level and the Level 3 Low Carbon Heating Technician qualifications, it is time for the government to make even more progress with this. We need more young people willing to go into these green jobs so we need to ensure that these are sustainable jobs that can provide young people with job and progression opportunities. This should be supported by ensuring that they are jobs with a wage that young people can live on. Furthermore, young people need to be made aware of the need for green skills and that there are opportunities for young people to develop these skills. A report by the Prince's Trust says that only 27% of young people had heard of the phrase ‘green skills’ before. This highlights the need for greater promotion of green jobs and green skills.
One of the key criticisms we had regarding the strategy was that there were no targets for retrofitting schools. And, lo and behold, there still aren’t any targets. As a result, I struggle to understand where the progress is. The NAO said only 500 schools will be ‘net zero carbon in operation’ by the end of the strategy’s timeline. So far, it appears that there is 1 net zero school that opened in August 2022. I suppose it’s progress but very disappointing progress. Even if 500 is their secret and invisible target, then that means only 1 out of 500 schools has been achieved. In the space of 1 year and around 9 months, only 1 net zero school has been built and only 5 schools are being built currently with ‘no to low carbon’ construction methods. The Resilient Schools Project (as mentioned before) is in progress at 4 schools in Yorkshire. This project is aimed at ‘testing optimum combinations of retrofit options to improve climate resilience’. TESTING. However, we do like the fact that all schools are expected to have Climate Action Plans and also the Nature Park which, to their credit, DfE have spent around £30mn on both of those since last year. Furthermore, our Green Schools Revolution programme is running pathfinders for both of these projects to show the sector how a student-led approach is vital for raising ambition. However, there is a consistent lack of tangible actions seen in the progress. It is an 8 year project that started at the beginning of 2022. With an election happening this year, it is unclear as to whether the strategy will see out the full 8 years and the absolutely minimal progress being made is extremely worrying.
And last but not least, operations and supply chains. If there is anything the government is consistent at when it comes to climate change, it is the lack of progress. The only progress worth of note here is that Active Travel England announced a £60 million investment to ensure ‘more young people have access to school and cycle training programmes’, and the development of the Sustainability Leadership and Climate Action Plan programme aimed at providing support to all education settings to embed sustainability in their operations. Again, there are no targets and although the investment from Active Travel England is positive, have the DfE thought about the state of the economy at the moment? The cost of living crisis that means many families will not be able to afford to buy their kids a bike? The state of the roads and the lack of cycling infrastructure? I’m from Sheffield and I know for a fact that the city is possibly one of the least bicycle friendly cities in the country.
We want to see so much more from the DfE. The lack of progress. The flimsy, vague and, in most cases, invisible targets. The lack of tangible and permanent actions. If they continue like this for the next 1 year and 9 months, then we will be nowhere near the UK being “...the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change by 2030” (Nadhim Zahawi - COP26). We need to see more progress from the Department for Education. We need to see more actions. We need to see funding being balanced with greater ambitions.
Teach the Future will continue to meet with the relevant people and will continue our pursuit and fight to implement climate education within all areas of the curriculum. Tired of a lack of progress just like I am? Then you can help us by doing the following: