When environmental education was introduced in the 1970s, India was one of the first countries to implement it in its formal education system. Around the same time, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) set foot in India and started the Nature Clubs of India movement, making nature experience the very basis of imparting environment education.
In 2017, WWF-India, in association with Capgemini, launched One Planet Academy (OPA) — a free-of-charge, unique digital portal that makes learning about the environment an engaging and thought-provoking exercise.
“The education programme at WWF-India is one of its first initiatives in the country, started nearly 50 years ago. With such a long legacy, We have also seen tremendous shifts in the education sector and the advent of technology, making educational material easily available for children. WWF-India recognises this shift in teaching and learning mediums and OPA taps into the affinity of kids for the digital medium to help expand the reach of environmental education in the country, ” says Radhika Suri, Director of the Environmental Education Division at WWF-India.
For everyone
The portal is aligned to the school curriculum prescribed by national education boards and is available to every student and staff member upon registration. It seeks to engage them in conservation action, making entire schools into environment-friendly units.
Students can enjoy a collection of nature-inspired stories and comics in the ‘Let’s Read’ section. For those who prefer to hear and see, the ‘Let’s Watch’ section brings animated tales, while ‘Let’s Play’ features a variety of adventure games, word games and trivia quizzes. There’s also a ‘Let’s Explore’ section, which carries information about careers in environment, and laws for the protection of the natural world.
The portal has a separate login for teachers, where they can find a EE-related activity and project ideas. It also features a teacher’s forum and online teacher training courses conducted by WWF-India.
Schools that register on OPA become part of WWF-India’s One Planet school programme. They not only have access to the resources on the portal, but also get to participate in the Wild Wisdom Quiz — India’s only national-level wildlife quiz, and Eco Trails — an experiential programme that connects individuals with nature and the local biodiversity. Teachers from registered schools attend two training programmes conducted by WWF-India in the year.
The portal hosts an annual Action Plan for Environmental Activities, and schools can develop a portfolio showcasing their ‘green’ efforts and the impact of activities undertaken by them. WWF-India does a mid-term review, and felicitates registered schools at the end of the year.
Looking forward
Suri says that since the launch, WWF-India has been actively promoting workshops based on various sections of the portal. “We’ve conducted workshops on green careers, drawing comics with green humour as well as teacher orientation sessions on using OPA in classrooms. With India’s population, OPA has huge ground to cover,” she says.
To know more, visit https://academy.wwfindia.org
