Statistics from UNESCO show that 55% of countries use the term "ecology" in their school programs and 47% use "environmental education". According to experts, it is important to talk about the importance of environmental protection from an early age, as today's children will be the ones creating environmental standards in the coming decades.

The environmental agenda has long been one of the most discussed topics for the public. And this interest is growing worldwide. This is because many countries are engaged in environmental education from an early age, forming a demand for further independent study of environmental problems.

For example, schoolchildren and students in Canada receive knowledge about ecology within the framework of the school curriculum, which is developed by experts from the Ministry of Environment. In the lessons, teenagers learn about the problem of increasing waste, its further collection, and the features of sorting each fraction. Environmental education also functions in France, where the emphasis is on interdisciplinarity and the connection between ecology and all spheres of human life.

In contrast to Canada and France, Japan does not have a separate subject or a unified program related to ecology. However, environmental education is given special attention in this country - special courses are created where both children and adults can gain knowledge. The Japanese believe that environmental education should be at the level of "mentality", but implemented differently in each region, based on the natural features of the area.

In the United States, as in Japan, the environmental curriculum is local, depending on the state and its natural characteristics. In addition, non-governmental organizations are actively involved in environmental education processes. This format of cooperation significantly expands the possibilities for popularizing the topic of ecology, as experts from companies are involved in schools and conditions are created for the practical application of knowledge.

As for Russia, all references to environmental education in official documents are mostly recommendatory in nature. Therefore, the responsibility for the implementation of educational environmental initiatives is often taken on by individual companies, city-forming enterprises, or educational institutions with the possibility of introducing additional educational disciplines.

In the overwhelming majority of schools, it is believed that the topic of ecology should be learned by children through related disciplines - biology and geography. However, in Russian textbooks, this direction is given only a few paragraphs. Such a small amount of material is not remembered by schoolchildren, and therefore the principles of conscious consumption are not fixed as fundamental.

In fact, environmental education exists only within the framework of additional education: each school introduces an environmental education program based on its own time and financial resources. And since the topic of environmental education is not standardized in Russian education, and there is a demand for studying ecology, commercial and non-profit organizations are great helpers in environmental education among schoolchildren.

In 2014, one of such organizations, "ECA", launched the "Eco-class" project. It provides teachers with materials for lessons on environmental education: tests, quests, videos, contests, and presentations. Any teacher can get information on the portal for free, choosing the topic and age orientation. Many experts argue that it is important not to scare the child with problems and a lot of information, but to arouse interest in environmental education. Therefore, opinion leaders of different age groups are increasingly involved in popularizing the topic.

Sources:

https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2016/education-people-and-planet-creating-sustainable-futures-all

https://ecamir.ru/projects/ekoklass/

https://trends.rbc.ru/trends/green/cmrm/61c303f59a7947ecb2dd1708