PRIMARY SCHOOL KEEN ON ENVIRONMENTAL

By : EAC MEDIA

THE Environmental Action Centre (EAC) team visited SK Maraba on Wednesday, a tiny rural primary school in Beaufort, to conduct seminars and demos in toilet cleanliness, recycling, composting and tree planting. The team was led by member of the EAC Management Group and Steering Committee, Nilakrisna James, who is also the Toilet Cleanliness Campaign 2011 chairman.

Students from pre-school to Primary 6 levels participated in an interactive program that saw the entire school community planting several plants and trees in the school compound, forming compost heaps and cleaning the school toilets. Nilakrisna also taught the students the issues of climate change and global warming and the need to reduce the use of plastics, electricity and polystyrene boxes for take-away meals.

“The children were enlightened about the symbiotic relationship between humans and other species and the need to preserve our forests and reduce the carbon impact from our lifestyle choices. They were also taught about the importance of hygiene in toilets and the risk of serious diseases and diarrhoea. World sanitation is an international Millenium Development Goal and we hope to halve the current population living without access to basic sanitation by 2015,” said Nilakrisna.

Nilakrisna also stated that there must be a shift in the focus of development in the educational budget to allow for more allocation in interactive environmental education, particularly in poor rural schools with excellent academic records.

“These students were very focused and smart children can develop good habits which can benefit the environment if the curriculum includes very clear guidelines in imparting information and knowledge on the issue of global warming.

“These young children showed genuine concern about these issues and the teachers stressed the importance of ‘greening’ the school environment which is evident judging from their well-maintained toilets, sprawling garden and community efforts.

“For a community that comes mainly from an agricultural base that includes palm oil, an understanding of the environmental impact of their businesses will be important. This is why rural schools should benefit from more funding to develop effective environmental educational programs.”

The EAC comes under the purview of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment and is a joint initiative between the government and the people.