The ‘Green School’ programme has been expanded to 120 schools across Turkmenistan. The initiative has been running since 2025, organised by the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan in partnership with UNICEF. This was reported by the news website Turkmenportal.

Events to mark the launch of the expansion took place in Ashgabat and across all the velayats of the country, bringing together school headteachers and representatives of education authorities, UNICEF reported.

The programme is structured around four key areas: school management, infrastructure and operations, teaching and learning, and community engagement.

Since its launch, the programme has been implemented on a pilot basis in 20 schools, where work has been carried out to integrate issues relating to climate change, environmental protection and disaster risk reduction into the curriculum. Following the national ‘Green Skills’ competition, students and schools exceeded expectations by engaging wider communities in their activities.

Building on these results, the Ministry of Education and UNICEF, in collaboration with education authorities at central and velayat levels, are preparing for the first phase of ‘Green School’ certification, which is expected to take place in autumn 2026. By the start of the new academic year, participating schools will receive teaching guides on adapting to climate change – climate education is one of the key criteria for being awarded ‘Green School’ status.

There are now 120 schools in Turkmenistan taking part in the programme. The Ministry of Education and UNICEF intend to expand the programme to 500 of the country’s approximately 1,900 schools by 2030.