Marine microbial communities are primary producers who play a vital role in ocean ecology and health. Despite their significance, marine microbes are not a popular topic among children and adults. Marine science education plays a key role in creating an understanding and sensitivity towards marine ecosystems with the integration of ocean literacy concepts. Previous research studies show that secondary school students have minimal understanding of the ocean and in many countries, school curricula do not have enough topics related to marine science. Teachers and educators are the main players in deciding the inclusion of the topics. We used South African secondary schools as a case study to investigate the level of marine science teachings, especially for Grades 10-12 through interviews and online surveys. Our results indicated that the South African government has recognised the importance of ocean literacy and marine education in the formal education sector and has recently implemented a specialised marine science curriculum which is currently taught by a few secondary schools across the country. With the use of AtlantECO tools and resources, a toolkit for South Africa could potentially be produced sharing various ocean knowledge and cultures of the South African and global context to expand the ocean literacy horizons.
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