Environmental education in schools

education meant to create an environmentally knowledgeable society.
A knowledgeable and well-informed public (society) on environmental issues is taken as one that is essential for effective environmental conservation and management.

What is environmental education?
Environmental education is the study of relationships and interactions between dynamic natural and human systems. In other words, it’s how people of all ages are helped to learn about environmental issues, either as part of their general curriculum based learning or through specific activities.

Environmental Management Act (CAP 20:27) Section 4 under Environmental Rights it is stated that: “Every person has a right to access environmental information.”
The best hope for learning to live sustainably lies in schooling that is “smart by nature.” It includes experiencing the natural world; learning how nature sustains life; nurturing healthy communities; recognising the implications of the ways we conduct our daily activities; and knowing well the places where we live, work and learn. Teachers are in a prime position to be able to weave these basics throughout the curriculum at every grade level.

Whether they start with an environmental issue or with fundamental ecological principles, teachers can nurture the knowledge, skills and values essential to sustainable living. A variety of teaching strategies are particularly appropriate for fostering sustainable living.

Environmental Management Agency promotes interdisciplinary instructional methods that are age-level appropriate; actively engage students in learning in and out of the classroom; involving them in long-term projects; and create an atmosphere of purposeful conversation and reflection about complex issues.

Currently, EMA is running environmental school debates countrywide and encouraging schools to take up environmental projects, either for conservation or rehabilitation purposes. EMA has assisted in establishing over

1 000 environmental clubs in schools and colleges.
Teaching strategies

EMA recognises that students learn best when teaching strategies are varied to include hands-on activities, time for reflection and thoughtful discussions, a mix of indoor and outdoor environments, and opportunities to participate in interdisciplinary projects.

Environmental education therefore includes:

learning in the field as well as the classroom;

incorporates the teaching methods of outdoor education, experimental education and place-based education;

is inherently interdisciplinary;

promotes school/community partnerships;

helps address the causes of “nature deficit disorder”;

boosts student achievement in all other related subjects such as geography, environmental science, nature studies among others;

develops awareness, increases knowledge, builds skills and creates the capacity for stewardship and good citizenship regarding the environment upon which we depend for life support;

is hands-on, student-centred, inquiry driven, engages higher level thinking skills which are relevant to students’ everyday life.

Some of the environmental activities that institutions can be involved in

Environmental debates; nutrition gardening; clean-up campaigns; tree planting/woodlot; gully reclamation projects; wetland rehabilitation projects; environmental awareness and campaigns.

Why is environmental education
important?

Our nature’s future relies on a well-educated public to be wise stewards of the very environment that sustains us. It is environmental education which can best help us as individuals make the complex, conceptual connections between economic prosperity, benefits to society, environmental health and our well-being.

This makes educating the young about these changes essential. They will be the generation that makes the difference in how to tackle environmental issues. EMA’s environmental programmes facilitate youth development that aims at an eco-conscious society and ultimately a cleaner and safer environment.