LEGAZPI CITY --- A new school curriculum from the elementary to the tertiary level is expected to be taught in classrooms starting next school year.

        Manuel “Nong” Rangasa, executive director of Centre on Initiatives and Research on Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) this week told the Bicol Mail that the Department of Education central office finally issued a directive to all public and private schools to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation in the curriculum effective next school year.

        “Currently the guidelines on new curriculum are in the process of fine tuning as called for by Education secretary Jeslie Lapus,” Rangasa said.

        Two years ago, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda initiated the National Conference on Climate Change Adaptation to come up with holistic approach to address the complex impact of climatic change in the country specifically Bicol. This came about after super typhoon Reming battered Albay, killing more than 1,000 people.

        Held last October 2007, the first national conference on climate change came out with the Albay Declaration on Climate Change Adaptation. The document calls for the mapping out of local and national policies to arrest the imminent threats posed by ecological shifts due to global warming.

        Salceda said that the Asia Pacific region to where the Philippines belongs is most susceptible to extreme weather changes following the melting of the glaciers that increases incidences of flooding, landslides and depleting of water resources within the next two to three decades.

        Salceda’s initiative eventually led to the passage of the Philippine Climate Change Act focusing on climate adaptation and mitigation of calamities.

        This new curriculum according to Dr. Maria Victoria Espandon, consultant of the Centre on Initiatives and Research on Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) and concurrent Dean of School of Environmental Science at the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), identifies Albay as a pilot province in mainstreaming of Climate Change adaptation in the country’s educational system.

        She added that after the approval of the Climate Change Act, the President will create a more focused National Climate Change Commission (NCCC) that will replace the Presidential Climate Change Commission being headed by Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes.

        Dominador P. Peralta, Jr., regional director of the Commission on Higher Education in Bicol for his part also issued a directive to all heads of state colleges and universities, presidents of private higher education institutions, administrators of community colleges regarding the implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in higher education institutions curricular programs here.

        “Bicol region has been exposed to various climate risks such as tropical cyclones, landslides and among others could worsen as a result of climate change. Hence, action on climate change is a civic duty of all citizens. We must therefore nurture institutions that enhance the collaboration and consensus among scientists, academe, policy makers, media, local communities, private sectors and civil society on continuing an intensive research to formulate adaptation options,” Peralta said in his directive.

        Therefore, Peralta’s directive added, education institutions in partnership with concerned agencies [should] propagate global warming awareness through schools which may adopt their own strategies on advocacy on climate change adaptation and mitigation.