As the implementing partner leading the Climate Smart Schools (CSS) component of the EU-funded GreenShift Nepal project, Restless Development Nepal organized a three day Training of Trainers (ToT) for the CSS focal teachers from May 23 to 25, 2026. GreenShift Nepal is a consortium initiative that promotes circular economy approaches and climate resilience, with the Climate Smart Schools component equipping young people to become leaders in environmental action through their schools and communities.
Representatives from 12 selected schools gathered for the three day workshop under GreenShift Nepal’s Climate Smart Schools initiative. The workshop brought together educators from Ichchhakamana Rural Municipality, Tilottama Municipality, and Khadak Municipality to prepare them to roll out an innovative Circular Economy and Climate Change Curriculum designed for students in grades 6 to 9.
The specialized curriculum aims to make environmental education highly practical, interactive, and relatable for youth. Rather than relying solely on traditional textbooks, the program utilizes educational games, real life case studies, and hands-on activities to teach complex topics like waste management, plastic pollution mitigation, and environmental responsibility.
The comprehensive training program combined essential theoretical frameworks with interactive teaching methods to ensure educators feel fully equipped to facilitate these concepts in their respective classrooms.
The three day intensive training helped shift the perspectives of the participant teachers from traditional teaching styles to interactive, student centered facilitation methods. Through collaborative simulations, group exercises, and hands-on training modules, the participants made use of creative tools to teach waste mitigation, climate science, and environmental responsibility.
The training focused heavily on systemic changes, giving teachers the skills to address plastic waste management, pollution mitigation, and zero waste practices through educational games and real life problem solving. Beyond environmental science, the workshop integrated critical structural capacities. Teachers were trained in European Union visibility and compliance guidelines, environmental safeguarding protocols, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) systems, and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) principles, ensuring that the upcoming school programs are inclusive, safe, and transparent.
The ToT concluded with a collaborative action planning session, during which each school drafted a tailored roadmap outlining how they will implement Climate Smart School activities in the coming months.
These action plans detail how the educators will cascade the circular economy curriculum through classrooms and eco clubs, establish sustainable student led waste management initiatives, and champion environmental sustainability within their local communities. Through these localized efforts, participating schools are transforming into active hubs for youth leadership and community driven climate action.
