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{
    "id": 612215,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/612215/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Abdalla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 382,
        "legal_name": "Amina Ali Abdalla",
        "slug": "amina-abdalla"
    },
    "content": "22 Wednesday 2nd December, 2015(A) March 2006, it also agreed through the African Ministers of Education in the context of enhancing education, including environmental education in the education curricula in Kenya. We also signed in 2009, the Bonn Convention. These are the basis of international instruments that required Kenya to have these policies because those are commitments we have made. Locally, our own Constitution in Article 42 declares that every person has a right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes the right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations. Every person has an obligation relating to environmental fulfilment that is also under Clause 70. So, this policy is long overdue and is required for purposes of ensuring that we create a pro- environment populace; having invested a lot and not getting the dividends, is clear that we need to have environmental education both formal and informal in order to change people’s attitudes towards environmental concerns. The aim of this National Education for Sustainable Development Policy is to provide a framework for mainstreaming education which inculcates sustainable development as a life-long practice at all levels of education in Kenya. The strategy is to create an overall re-orientation of the education sector both the formal and informal, so that we are able to achieve sustainable development. My previous employer, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) defines environmental education as the process of recognising value and clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the inter-relatedness among man, his nature and his biophysical surrounding. Environmental education also entails practices in decision making and self-formulation of a code of behaviour about issues concerning environmental quality. Whereas we appreciate that our economy is over-dependent on natural resources, the welfare and wellbeing of the health of our people is dependent on a good quality of environment. We as a nation have not invested in creating enough environmental awareness for purposes of getting more environmental positive action by the populace. It is clear that Kenya has put in a lot of steps in ensuring that we have a better environment but without investment in education, the gaps will not be filled. That is the gap that this policy is trying to fill. We are trying to re-orient the education at all levels for sustainable development, enhance public understanding and awareness, and build capacity for sustainable development. So, that is what this policy aims to do. The question is how. We, in Kenya, have a problem of having a policy that comes way after the enabling legislation has already been passed. The institution that is supposed to carry out and promote environmental education is the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) whose Bill, the Environmental Management and Coordination Bill, was passed in this House in the beginning of this year to comply with the Constitution. It covers activities relating to environmental education as one of their responsibilities. That, in our opinion as a Committee, is one of the weakest responsibilities of NEMA that needs to be strengthened. It is our hope and prayer that now we will be able to pass this regulation; I understand that in the next one hour, we will then be able to push NEMA into doing the responsibility and showing results of what they have done with other stakeholders mentioned in this policy to integrate environmental education in the formal and informal curricula in this country. People must have knowledge about environmental issues and attitudes in order to act pro- environment in a conscious way. However, environmental education per se is not a prerequisite for pro-environment behaviour. It is in this regard that we must go beyond just information and"
}