Jejak Online

Newsletter LEAD Cohort 9

E-CONFERENCE COHORT 9 INTEREST GROUP ON EDUCATION

Nosi Lestariwati, The Club Store, Jakarta

When cohort 9 associates met for the first time in Pakistan for the Interest Group on Education, we had no idea that we share the same level of concern and have a common interest especially for Environmental Education (EE). So during that time we agreed to have an e-conference in future which would bring us closer together in understanding the ups and downs of EE. The E-Conference was held in April 2001 (from 24th to 28th if I am not mistaken) and it was very interesting to know what efforts were being done by each country in the area of Environmental Education (EE). The highlights of the e-conference are shared below.

Participatory

It seems that people have a rather different emphasis on EE and therefore sometimes difficult to apply a single term for this issue. An associate from Japan mentioned her interest in Broad Based Participation in Environmental Education, how to develop Participatory Education for Sustainable Development or Participatory Environmental Education. However the red line which can be drawn is the necessity to make people aware of existing environmental problems and make them learn EE willingly - it is the affective part of their mind or personality which is triggered and processed further - which has a long term affect and provides the opportunity to make people participate in actions towards saving and preserving the environment.

A lot of EE activities have been done involving school children, teenagers and local community and most unique in the sense that they show a high level of participation from the community. In Phillipines for example, The Children's Theatre Collective (CTC) which consist of artists & teachers who specialize in producing children's theatre began a partership in 1988 with local community groups to introduce environmental issues to children. In this program it was the children themselves who picked the problems on environment & development in their community and taught to stage a street play in and around their community. So far they have covered issues of slums, garbage disposal, and other community problems happening around themselves. There is a Nature School in Chiba, Japan proposed by an American Nature Writer who makes pictures, and through these pictures children learn how animals and insect live. The Conservation Education Centre (CEC) of Bombay Natural History Society or BNHS in India, have started several clubs in schools and collages where students take initiative & participate in active campaigns for biodiversity conservation.

Unconventional Methods

The above examples show that EE can be fun and conducted using unconventional methods and indeed there is high concern from the members of this Interest Group to explore how unconventional training strategies can be used in EE, like street drama, visual technologies, distance learning for teachers, etc. But why 'unconventional methods'? Experience show that EE programs which took place in China & Japan lack of strategic decision making, minimum participation from community and stake holders which makes it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs. One of the problem in China is educating business managers of rural industries who are major polluters - what is needed is a different approach to enable managers to see a win-win solution for the business when the consider the environmental issues. In India, the real challenge of EE is developing methods to clearly get the message across to the community, and a lot of depends on local situation, culture, political situation etc.

Through unconventional training methods, EE can reach the audience and unless participatory approach is applied where we involve children, teenager and other components of community in the process, they will not participate and they will not develop a sense of belongingness. Since it is a difficult task to make people realize how important it is to build concern for the environment, one creative way is to celebrate events at different level in different period of the year. Notice that we celebrate the events below:

April 22 is World Earth Day
February 2 is World Well Day
March 22 is World Water Day
September 11 is World Tourism Day
March 23 is International Meteorological Day
October 3 is World Habitat Day
September 25 is International Maritime Day
September 16 is World Ozone Day
May 29 is Disaster Management Day
May 31 is No Tobacco Day
July 11 is Population Day
October 16 is World Food Day
November 21 is International Fishing Day
December 29 is Bio Diversity Day
December 12 is Children Broadcasting Day

Celebration - most importantly the activities or campaign which comes along with the celebration - provides opportunity to get community's attention and is also a form of unconventional method for EE. An associate from Pakistan shares this tool to be very effective, giving the opportunity to involve young people in useful activities including games, plays and quiz contests or as was done this year where a certain college has staged a street play with WWF which was highly appreciated by school children and adults.

Motivational Side

Motivation from concerned people - making something happen requires continous struggle and devotion. It took almost three decades for developed nations to make their citizen realize what the environmental problem is, and English speaking countries picked it up a little earlier as much is said and written in English. In developing countries the situation is a little different in terms that emphasis on EE is not yet seen in the curriculum, although some private schools are doing better compared to government schools. It is the same in Pakistan and other countries where students and teachers have different level of awareness about EE - more emphasis should be given on teacher training as they are the people who inculcate ideas into the mind of the students more powerfully and speedly with a long lasting impact.