Partnership for Action Initiative launched at Taipei Zoo by Ministry of Education, Connecting the Cross-governmental agencies towards generational sustainability
This year is 50th anniversary of Earth Day, 30th anniversary of Ministry of Education (MOE) for promotion of school environmental education (School EE), and 10th anniversary of Environmental Protection Act in legislation. Thus, MOE firstly invited seven significant governmental agencies from different specialized fields to join in the event. With the theme of “50-30-10 Partnership for Action” this event was focused on ‘cross fields generational sustainability’ held at Taipei Zoo on 16 September, 2020. MOE and other organizations were demonstrating their cooperating outcomes and the achievement contributed by every organization on school EE, and awards 2019 Outstanding Educators promoting school EE.
Facing tough challenge as global warming and climate change, Minister of MOE, Pan Wen-Chung said, “Environmental education always is important learning topic which enables to build up students’ environmental literacy. EE especially relates with wide, deep, and various issues, to which we need to emphasize interdisciplinary learning strategies and inter-organizational cooperation. MOE really appreciates the associated ministries to support EE for providing a variety of learning materials, teaching tools, and outdoor learning facilities.”
In the event, an announcement ceremony for Action Initiative was arranged, which includes Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Energy, Water Resources Agency, Central Weather Bureau, Forestry Bureau, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, Taipei Education Bureau and Taipei Zoo, and they declare to work collectively towards Goal 17 (Global Partnership). Taipei Zoo designed animal characters featuring on sustainable development goals (SDGs). With Goal 4 “Quality Education” led by MOE, all the government partners ‘plant’ other goal tree representing future hope into the wooden set of SDGs. It implies further cooperation is built by all government partners to enhance quality of School EE and envisioning sustainable future.
At themes gallery and booths, MOE displayed the outcome of international EE outreach on school EE in recent years and released microfilm as “Superman’s E2 Journal” to indicate various forms of School EE conducting at different areas of Taiwan. Other organizations also presented outcomes from a variety of booths featuring green energy transition, circular economy, environmental-friendly consumption, water education, climate education app, disaster management, forest education and agriculture education, which enriches school EE resources.
In the meanwhile, the event also included EE Award Ceremony with Outstanding and Excellent Prizes. The prizes are comprised of four groups (administrative institution, university, middle school and elementary school) with 27 awardees. Those who won the Outstanding Prize have dedicated themselves for promoting EE over years in formal education system through management and/or teaching practices.
MOE also actively promotes environmental policy as planting native trees on campus and implementing solar power panels to increase green coverage and green energy usage. With cooperation with Forestry Bureau, MOE aims to set up school tree database and promote forestry education to increase environmental literacy for all.
The EE policy of MOE heading to sustainable development and transformation has been initiated since 2020, with the vision as New Environmental Education Development (NEED) to deepen the formal education practices and actions, to link to global environmental issues as well as to devote for SDGs, and finally to foresee quality education. More school EE resources and achievement are available on Official Website: MOE Green School (https://www.greenschool.moe.edu.tw).
More activity photos