In order to learn about projects related to environmental education and the environment, as well as to identify areas of cooperation, Mrs. Anne Lemaistre, director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, arrived at the University of Pedagogical Science Enrique José Varona, from the capital.

In the entity, founded on July 31, 1964, the visitor held a meeting with the rector Dr. C Milda Libia Díaz Masip, heads of careers, directors and professors of this university, the only one of its kind in Cuba that establishes the strategy of the pedagogical careers of the country with high quality for the initial and continuous training of educators in the capital, and that contributes to the development of these processes in the national territory and in other nations of the world.

At the meeting it was reported that the Center for the Study of Environmental Education project GEAT Environmental Education and Environment works with an eye on the sustainable development goals, which establishes the 20-30 agenda.

In this regard, they specified that as part of the program to confront climate change in Cuba, known as the Life Task, the university includes three key areas: improvement and updating of study programs, and in environmental projects they have incorporated actions related to education environment and the environment, specifically with renewable energy sources. In this section, the academic institution develops a proposal that has contributed from theory and practice, with the installation of social panels and solar heaters.

They explained that the environmental issue has been implemented in Ciudad Escolar Libertad, an area with a variety of students and schools that have been incorporated into environmental research projects. In this sense, they detailed that the schools associated with UNESCO and others that are not address a global concern and also of Cuba, such as biodiversity, associated with climate change. In this way they have incorporated students from different levels of education, with the aim of contributing to the link between the museum, school and community.

The UNESCO representative thanked the explanation and confirmed that this aspect within the sustainable development goals becomes vital in the context of climate change.

To exemplify this idea, she expressed: “We have all suffered this summer. We have felt high temperatures in Cuba and also in Europe. In the United States there are fires in California almost every day, and in Brazil also in the Amazon. Meanwhile, Pakistan is suffering from intense flooding, and in this overpopulated country 30 percent of its territory is under water.

"We are verifying, she maintained, that the forecasts announced by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Climate Change are fulfilled, when they announced the occurrence of these disasters 20 years ago."

She affirmed that there is an emergency and expressed her satisfaction upon hearing about the work carried out by the house of higher studies. We are going to discuss and analyze the ideas presented with the Citma minister.

She also added that within the UNESCO projections there is a new chapter that will open under the name of oceanographic literacy, that is, education about the oceans.

According to the directive in this new chapter, launched five years ago by the intergovernmental ocean commission, it would be opportune to include Cuba for being an island and for developing actions related to the theme.

Photo: Yuliet Gutierrez Delgado

On the occasion of International Literacy Day being celebrated on September 8, Anne Lemaistre's tour concluded at the Literacy Museum, an entity that, according to its director, Luisa Yara Campos Gallardo, is unique in the world and keeps the memory of that milestone, as well as the primers, manuals, audiovisual material and bibliography that attest to the permanent contribution of Cuba to bring the light of knowledge to more than 30 countries, in distant continents.

Photo: Yuliet Gutierrez Delgado