Thousands of New Zealand school students will skip school on March 15 to protest about climate change as part of a worldwide day of action.
There have already been a number of student strikes in other countries, mostly in Europe. The purpose of the movement is to demand that governments and societies take action against climate change. The name of the movement is “School Strike 4 Climate,” and the March 15 global strike is called “Earth Strike.” This strike is different because it will be global. The global strike will take place across Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, Africa, South America, Samoa, Japan, India and Indonesia. It may be that more countries will join the list.
New Zealand’s national co-ordinator is Sophie Handford in Kapiti. She is facilitating protests in more than 20 towns and cities throughout the country. She is doing this via facebook. You can look at the facebook site here. Some of the towns in New Zealand where strikes will definitely take place are Russel, Auckland, Kapiti, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin.
Although many teachers support the strike, schools officially disapprove and will record student absences as “unjustified.”
Vocabulary:
support: if you agree and are willing to help, you support something or someone
disapprove: if you don’t agree, and you are in a position of authority, you disapprove.
protest: this can be a noun or a verb and it means to complain. Protest as a noun is an organised group event where people complain in public.
strike: a form of protest that involves not doing your normal work