Eco-Schools Exciting Happenings
Schools Flying Green Flags in recognition of Environmental Learning and Action -
10 years on: The WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools Programme
Bridget Ringdahl
“What makes Eco-Schools programme so special is that it is integral to the current curriculum rather than an add-on process. It has taught all participating schools about changing the way we live, how we depend on the biodiversity around us & our perceptions about nature. Through this programme we have been able to deepen our knowledge & learn more about better environmental management skills.”
Principal Nathi Majola, Carshalton School (International ES flag School), Mooi River, KZN
Solar Cookers, vegetable gardens, wetland restoration, healthy tuckshops and water tanks are just some of the concepts embraced by schools that are participating in the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA)/WWF Eco-Schools Programme.
Now in its 10th year the Eco-Schools Programme has become a valuable curriculum framework for schools to work toward sustainable development goals. Since it was launched in South Africa in 2003 with funding support from Nampak, the number of schools that have registered have increased from 100 in the first year to over 1100 schools in 2011. Of these schools more than half have been working with the Programme for two or more years which is ultimately one of the core aims; ensuring that efforts for better environmental learning and action are sustained and become part of how schools are managed.
In the dawn of a decade the Eco-Schools programme is delighted to have secured further national funding support from PetroSA, this together with funding from Nampak, will make a considerable contribution to ensuring the programme continues to have a national spread and expand into provinces where there has been little support.
Eco-Schools is an internationally recognised programme of the Foundation of Environmental Education(FEE) www.eco-schools.org ,that accredits schools that make a commitment to continuously improve their school’s environmental performance. Currently 51 countries are part of the programme worldwide with over 30 000 schools participating. Some of the more recent countries to join include Iran, China, USA and Uganda.
Amongst the 650 schools that were awarded an Eco-Schools award for their efforts in 2011, another 64 proud schools were awarded their International Eco-Schools flag, for sustaining and developing their environmental projects for five years. What is particularly noteworthy is the range of schools that have earned this prestigious award over the years, from under resourced rural schools such as Carshalton Farm School in Mooi River to more well resourced town-based schools such as Virginia Prep in Durban North. This demonstrates one of the virtues of the Programme, that being its flexibility to encourage environmental action and responsibility at all levels and in all cultures and in all places.
When schools register with the programme, they commit to improving environmental learning and action through the curriculum. Relevant themes are chosen by the learners and teachers, lesson plans are developed and school improvement plans and records of their progress are collected in a portfolio.
Ixopo Primary is one of the schools to have achieved International flag status and has been with the programme for 7 years. A very proud MMdluli, DoE circuit manager of Sisonke said, ‘Ixopo Primary are the hope and success we should be acknowledging especially in light of the extremely poor matric results that our district has reflected. The Eco-Schools programme has shown that it is able to mobilise schools to become voice of the environment while ensuring good curriculum-based learning. We would love to see schools all over the district and country taking up the Eco-Schools challenge.’
Over the past five years Ixopo’s eco-schools projects have focused on of issues including establishing an indigenous garden and wetland; recycling and reusing as much of their school and home waste as possible, installing water tanks and being very active in reducing water use and waste; building and designing solar cookers; introducing a healthy tuck shop devoid of junk food; helping the community by providing the home grown veggies to those in need. All of these projects are ongoing and will be developed further with sound lessons that tie in with the curriculum building up with an environmental ethic and importantly the ability to take action and make informed decisions about what they do and how this impacts on the environment. Principal Jolene Upton commented that ‘Eco-schools is part of the curriculum as is really very easy to implement, it’s just a matter of seeing the links! It couldn’t be a more important programme for schools to be part of especially in light of our current environmental crisis’
One of 2011’s Green flag winners Khumbula High School in Mpumalanga focussed on Recycling and Enviro mentors who monitor and calculate the amount of waste generated per week. This project, has as a result encouraged teenagers to become amabassadors of the environment and they take their role very seriously. The learners have also established a very organised and flourishing indigenous tree nursery as well as vegetable garden. Pyramid gardens were also investigated as a way of growing vegetable in poor soils. Added to their recycling initiative re-using is very much part of the plan – the enviro club learners have mastered the art of paper making which is also used as an income generation project as well a way to address Climate Change and associated impacts. Alien plant eradication very seriously as they strive to encourage biodiversity back into their school grounds.
Sinothando Primary situated near Pongola was awarded their International flag for 2011. They joined the Eco-Schools Programme in 2007 and received their green flag status in that same year. Besides addressing their own environmental needs they are also a great support system for their surrounding schools with regards to environmental knowledge, involvement and activities and getting them involved in Eco-Schools. Some of the projects have included water auditing and saving, indigenous gardens, encouraging biodiversity back into their school grounds with bird feeders, dealing with soil erosion and sustaining the school vegetable garden while learners have also started their own vegetable gardens at home.
Evidence of lessons and action are collated and submitted for assessment at the end of a year, and successful schools that can demonstrate action and learning are awarded an Eco-School award. Schools may keep their award for a year, after which another portfolio is submitted and assessed.
The Eco-Schools programme is about ‘change’ and taking current action and helping that to become better action. Instead of changing what is in peoples’ heads, and then hoping their actions would follow, an approach that usually doesn’t work very well, this approach starts from the current actions and practices that schools are involved in, and then helps teachers and learners to work with these to try out, explore and develop more sustainable actions. Prof Rob O’Donoghue from the Rhodes Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit refers to this way of working as an ‘open process framework’ because it has an ‘open way’ of doing things. It doesn’t really matter which order you work, but it is important that the different processes of the ‘start up story’, ‘talking about’, ‘finding out’, ‘trying out’, and ‘deliberating’
While schools are encouraged to look at local issues this does not discourage them from looking further a field. Being an international programme the schools are able to link up with Eco-Schools the other 51 countries to learn about issues that may be common or different and also to see that we are all just part of one big ecosystem. Currently there are over 30 000 participating schools and countries range from as far as Puerto Rico, Uganda, Lithuania and Japan.
Through the enthusiasm and commitment that shines from all Eco-Schools, there is no doubt that they will continue to spread and inspire other schools to join one of the most important quests of our time, the march to save ourselves and our home – our planet!
Without support from funders like PetroSA and Nampak, the programme would not be entering a decade of success!