Balwadis
(Pre-School Centres)
Environmental
Education in Schools
Gram
Pustakalaya (Village Libraries)
Sandhya
Kendra (Evening Centres)
Computer
Literacy
Kishori Shikshan
(Adolescent Education)
Women’s
literacy and education
Preventive Health Care and Education
Gram Shikshan Kendra (Community Learning Centres) |
Environmental Education
in Schools |
Our
environmental education course, Our Land
Our Life, focusing on village land
rehabilitation and sustainable management,
is now part of the regular school curriculum
in classes 6, 7, and 8 in the state of
Uttarakhand. The course began in 1988 and
gradually expanded to cover some 500 schools
and Intermediate colleges; approximately
65,000 students and 1000 teachers were
involved in the programme by the year 2000.
In 2002, the state's Department of Education
introduced the course into the regular
school curriculum. The course is taught as a
separate subject in all schools. About half
a million students study environment
education in schools currently.
The course reflects the real life
environmental and livelihood issues that
have been raised by women's groups and CBOs.
Local community participation in developing
the course is a major feature; villagers are
requested to narrate village history and
share with students their traditional
knowledge of land, forest, water, and animal
management. Practical work is emphasised.
Students also learn about community
organisations and their functioning.
We have trained master trainers and
government teachers for the course, supplied
workbooks and tools to the students, and
undertaken school visits to give on-the-spot
guidance and to evaluate progress.
Orientation programmes too were conducted
for principals, education department
officials and supervisory staff.
To the best of our knowledge this is the
only instance in India, or anywhere else,
when a complete environmental education
course developed by an ngo has been
introduced in its entirety, as a part of a
state’s school curriculum. |
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