"The international community must make education one of the pillars of its action for the ocean. Because if we want to protect it better, we must teach it better. On the occasion of the One Ocean Summit, I am setting a common objective for our 193 Member States: to include ocean education in school curricula by 2025," announced Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, the UN agency leading the Decade of Ocean Sciences, during her presence in Brest.

From the national level to the classroom

To achieve this ambitious goal, UNESCO on Thursday unveiled a common repository of educational content for policymakers and curriculum developers. It gives them all the keys needed to integrating ocean education at every level of the educational chain: from the drafting of national curricula to the preparation of lessons by teachers.

"Thanks to this toolkit, all States are on an equal footing, rapidly able to place the ocean at the heart of education and increase students' knowledge in this area so that they become responsible and committed citizens," explained Stefania Giannini, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General in charge of education.

Valuing good practices

The new educational tools provided by UNESCO, with the support of AXA and numerous other partners and experts, reflect the conviction that we need to change the way society interacts with the ocean to achieve a more sustainable model.

In its reference tool, UNESCO highlights the good practices of Member States already working on ocean education, such as Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Kenya, Portugal and Sweden. In the form of case studies, the Organization presents the main results achieved by these countries, as well as the opportunities and challenges met when seeking to include ocean knowledge in a structured way in the curriculum.

Including traditional knowledge

For UNESCO, ocean education should not only involve the transmission of scientific knowledge and awareness of contemporary issues; it should also promote traditional skills and knowledge, such as those protected by the 2001 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, which promotes ancestral fishing techniques, for example. UNESCO's new toolkit leaves it to Member States and regions to adapt the "theory of change" to their specific practices, situations and needs.

UNESCO will monitor the implementation of this objective by its 193 Member States. A first progress report is planned for COP27, which will be held in November 2022 in Egypt.

UNESCO and the ocean

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is the UN agency in charge of the ocean. UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), founded in 1960 and joined by 150 countries, coordinates global programmes such as ocean mapping, ocean health monitoring and tsunami risk prevention, as well as numerous scientific research projects. The agency is also the custodian of unique ocean places, through 232 marine biosphere reserves and 50 marine World Heritage sites of outstanding universal value.

UNESCO is leading the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021 to 2030), which this year will see the organization of several major international summits that will help to amplify mobilization in this field.