Dr. Wijdan Aloqab, President of the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, affirmed that “her proposal submitted to the Minister of Education, Engineer Jalal Sayed Abdulmohsen Al-Tabtabai, regarding the inclusion of the subject (November 6th - International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflicts) in the educational curricula is entirely consistent with the Ministry of Education’s initiative, efforts, and rapid steps towards better education for our children at all educational levels, especially the initiative to develop curricula and overcome the difficulties in preparing and printing them after the success of the beehives working on preparing and reviewing those curricula.”.
In a press statement today, Dr. Aloqab commented on the Ministry of Education's intention to include November 6th, the day the last burning oil well was extinguished, in the school curriculum, noting that it is a commendable step that documents the efforts and environmental heroism of the Kuwaiti firefighting team in protecting the Kuwaiti environment and natural resources, and the importance of education and awareness in preserving environmental rights. She added, "We believe that education is the foundation of the advancement of nations, and the strength of their foundations and values can only be formed through diverse and flexible curricula that can link the scientific material to the student's life and connect him to his history.".
She added, “However, the association looks forward to a response to its proposal submitted to the Minister of Education last November regarding the possibility of adding the scientific material related to the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflicts to the school curricula, stressing the need to provide reliable material and information about the largest environmental disaster witnessed by the region and the world during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, since including the topic in the curricula enhances environmental awareness and the values of peace and responsibility, and its content can be covered in Arabic language, science, and social studies materials.”.
She stated that the proposal to include the content of November 6th as an international day in the educational curricula serves to prove Kuwait’s right to demand that the United Nations adopt it as an international day and to pass on this global achievement of the State of Kuwait to future generations, which highlights the prominent role of the State of Kuwait in changing the world for the better and how it turned the national occasion into an international occasion that highlights its harsh experience and how it overcame it to be a lesson for the world in initiatives, perseverance, patience and resilience.”.
Dr. Aloqab affirmed that “this proposal is consistent with the association’s interest in making this year’s theme ”The Impact of Education on Preserving Environmental History.’ The proposal includes the association’s initiative to include the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflicts among the international days, which reflects the strong influence of Kuwaiti civil society institutions in expressing the conditions of society and acting in its interest, in addition to the cooperation between government agencies and the vision of civil society and the support of the public interest, which was led by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs with professionalism and steadfastness in the position until it obtained the approval of the United Nations in accordance with Resolution 56/4 in 2001.”.
