A new report claiming Australia’s National Curriculum deliberately instils climate anxiety in children has drawn criticism from education experts, reigniting discussion over how environmental issues should be taught in schools.
The Institute of Public Affairs released a report on Wednesday alleging the curriculum’s sustainability cross-curriculum priority enables “alarmist teaching materials” to reach students as young as five years old.
“From the moment children enter the education system, they are taught to be anxious about the future of the planet and the climate,” said Colleen Harkin, director of the IPA’s Schools Program.
The report, Climate of Fear: How the National Curriculum Drives Climate Anxiety Among Children, argued emotionally charged climate lessons are presented before children possess the cognitive or emotional maturity to process them.
Educational psychologist and IPA adjunct fellow Clare Rowe said climate content is “embedded across the curriculum – in art, humanities, English, even into early literacy tasks”.
“We delay teaching children about war, terrorism, cancer, or adult political issues for a reason,” Rowe said. “Yet we have no guardrails around the emotional impact of climate education on young minds.”
The IPA recommended abolishing the sustainability cross-curriculum priority, delaying emotionally charged topics until secondary school, and confining climate instruction to science classes.
Climate education defended as evidence-based
Monash University’s professor Sara Tolbert responded on the statement, describing the IPA’s position as politically motivated rather than evidence-based.
“The Institute of Public Affairs’ attack on climate education reveals more about their ideological agenda than about Australian classrooms,” Tolbert said. “The IPA, a think tank that refuses to disclose its current donors and with a documented history of climate science denial, has no credible standing to dictate what children learn about the defining environmental challenges of their generation.”
Tolbert said Australia’s climate education approach aligns with the Paris Agreement and UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development initiatives.
“Climate and sustainability education is embedded not only in the school curriculum but also in the Early Years Learning Framework, developed by experienced early childhood educators and pedagogical experts who understand that children have a right to be informed and to participate meaningfully in matters affecting their lives,” Tolbert said.
She said research shows students experience more anxiety when climate issues are not taught.
“Research shows that students experience more anxiety when these issues are not taught, as awareness without mechanisms for action exacerbates distress,” Tolbert said.
The discussion comes as NAPLAN results show one-third of students in Years 3 and 5 fail to meet minimum benchmarks in literacy and numeracy.