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EVENTS

Environment Education in School System

In India, at the central level both the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) have been working towards supporting EE in schools. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has supported training of teachers in EE and school level activities under the National Environment Awareness Campaign. The Environmental Orientation to School Education scheme of the MHRD supported initiatives by state governments and NGOs for environmentalising school education. Some state governments have also initiated efforts within their own states.

An innovative initiative was the Environmental Education in School System (EESS), which was a sub-component of the World Bank, supported ‘India Environment Management Capacity Building Project’ undertaken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India. MoEF’s Centre of Excellence, Centre for Environment Education was the Consultant for the implementation of EESS. The project aimed to strengthen environmental education in the school system through:

§ Strengthening infusion of EE in textbooks

§ Teacher training for effective EE/Class room transaction

§ Use of non-formal and hands-on teaching learning methods

§ Creating a separate space and time for consolidating environmental learning

The project implementation has been in four phases:

Phase I involved detailed analysis of the textbooks of all the 32 states of the country. This was to assess the level of infusion of environmental concepts in school curricula in the textbooks of Science, Social Studies and Languages. Along with this a sample study in 10 states of the country was done to assess teaching methods used for delivering environmental concepts in schools to provide insights into the methods and materials being used to teach these concepts in an effective way and to investigate the major barriers towards effective environmental education. The recommendations of this phase were implemented in six states in the country. The study was carried out by the BharatiVidyapeethDeemedUniversity. More on the study and results

Phase II involved pilot implementation of the programme in eight states at the middle school level (Std VI, VII, and VIII) mainly through impacting the teaching of Science, Social Studies and Languages and through extra and co-curricular activities. For strengthening EE in schools, as a first step, greening of existing State level textbooks has been undertaken by infusing environmental concepts into the textbooks of Science, Social Studies and Languages for standards VI, VII and VIII. The process of greening textbooks involved adding, deleting, modifying and adapting text, visuals, activities, exercise etc., to give an environmental perspective.

The Project involved pilot implementation of the programme in eight States i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab and Uttaranchal (100 schools per State)…. More on Phase II

Phase III involved 8 more states for a similar exercise of greening textbooks, training teachers, and enriching EE by co-curricular hands-on activities. As part of Phase III, greening framework have been developed for 10 states agreed to participate in this process, namely: Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The process involved training of Master Trainers and teachers, and co-curricular hands-on activites in the selected states......More on Phase III

Phase IV Strengthening Environment Education in School System (StrEESS)

In 2003 the Supreme Court (SC) of India mandated compulsory Environmental Education (EE) at all stages of education throughout the country. It directed the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) to prepare a model syllabus for this purpose. In 2004 NCERT published the first edition of the syllabus, which the SC approved and directed all the boards and councils for school education in the country to adopt, to suitably modify their existing syllabi and textbooks, or to develop them anew.

Most education boards responded to the SC directive and initiated the process. Further to this, NCERT published the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, in which EE appeared as Habitat and Learning and was recommended for an infusion approach. The Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests (GoI-MOEF) extended technical help to further the initiative. CEE, with two decades of experience of the MoEF project Environmental Education in School System (EESS), was invited as a consultant to streamline and support execution of the directive. In 2005, GoI-MoEF initiated the project Strengthening Environment Education in School System (StrEESS). This is a national project in collaboration with State Departments of Education (SDEs) across India.

CEE, with its regional and state offices, worked closely with the SDEs to evaluate the existing EE syllabi and textbooks vis-à-vis the SC-approved syllabus. This was done to commence the process of developing material appropriate to the implementation of the SC directive. CEE initiated discussions with the SDEs to facilitate and help them in the compliance of the SC directive, and facilitated the development of proposals by them focusing on the action plan to facilitate implementation of the curriculum, orienting text book writers, developing text books and teaching-learning materials, and teacher training.

During 2006-07, CEE continued these activities in the states and developed a web-enabled EE database for use as a resource base.

For more information contact:
Shri R. Mehta
Advisor, Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF)
Paryavaran Bhavan
C.G.O. Complex
Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110 003

Centre for Environment Education
Nehru Foundation for Development,
Thaltej Tekra
Ahmedabad – 380054
Ph:079- 26858002-8009
Email: cee@ceeindia.org