Staff Reporter
KOCHI: The Ministry of Environment and Forests seems to be popularising environment education across the country by involving the student community in a big way. It has invited schools to form eco-clubs aimed at developing environmental awareness among students.
Such clubs will be encouraged to organise seminars, debates, lectures and popular talks on environmental issues in the schools. Members will make field visits to environmentally important sites, including polluted and degraded sites and wildlife parks.
S. Sitaraman, district coordinator of the National Green Corps project, says the eco-clubs will organise rallies, marches, human chains, and street theatre at public places with a view to spreading environmental awareness.
Action-based activities such as tree planting and cleanliness drives within and outside the school campus form part of the project. Green cadets will join hands to set up kitchen gardens. They will also maintain vermi-composting pits and construct water-harvesting structures in schools.
Teachers’ role
Prof. Sitaraman says that teachers have a major role to play in generating environmental awareness. They can evolve action plans involving the student community.
The teachers in-charge of the eco-clubs should encourage more students to join the clubs. They should take imaginative steps to implement the activities suggested in the scheme that are relevant to a particular region.
Students’ suggestions
The teaching community should assemble the eco-club members every week for an hour at least and take up some activity. They must encourage the students to suggest activities for the following weeks and make a list.
Prof. Sitaraman says teachers should make necessary preparations for implementing the projects in consultation with the school headmasters.
The eco-clubs should also forward their monthly activity report to the district committee.
