President János Áder has discussed programs which teach sustainability in public education during his Blue Planet podcast with Miklós Matolcsy, the head of a company organizing thematic weeks in public schools.
The president said thematic weeks on sustainability are held in about a third of Hungarian schools, with some 400,000 students participating. According to a survey filled out by 11,000 students, they see noise pollution, illegal waste dumps and water pollution as the most important issues.
President Áder said that besides organizing thematic weeks, PontVelem, the company headed by Matolcsy, also offers a curriculum on sustainability, including teacher training, textbooks and a complete methodology which has already been adopted by 200 schools. The curriculum is currently developed for 15-16-year-olds, with the textbook for 17-18-year-olds already in progress, he said.