Schools may soon offer environment education

NEW DELHI: School education in the country seems all set to be heading towards "greener pastures". So students may actually get to study CNG conversion in Delhi or the gas leak tragedy in Bhopal.
Following a directive issued by the Supreme Court in December last year, the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) is busy finalising details on introduction of environment education in schools as a compulsory subject.
The apex court has set April 14 as the deadline for the council to submit its draft on the issue.
Some of the major recommendations being made by NCERT include development of a "regionally balanced" curriculum. Officials claim the syllabus will not only focus on concepts relating to global phenomenon but also on the local environment of a region.
"Students relate better with their immediate environment. So, study projects specific to their region, such as the slate making industry in MP can be taken up," said director, NCERT, J S Rajput.
While NCERT officials claim the new syllabus will give adequate representation to local environment issues, not all seem to be convinced.
"We asked NCERT to develop a core curriculum and let the states develop supplementary text books on their local environment issues. However, this suggestion will probably not find a mention in the final draft being submitted to the court," said R M Mohla, who represented Delhi government''s directorate of education at a recent meeting held at NCERT.
Apart from the contentious syllabi issue, other suggestions being made by the council include opting for alternative methods of evaluation instead of the usual term end examination.
"Evaluation need not be based only on cognitive aspects. Alternatives like group evaluation and continuous evaluation, perhaps, give a more complete assessment of a student''s level of understanding," said Rajput.
Extensive teacher training is being seen as a necessary pre-requisite for introduction of environment education. Officials say that the subject must be made part of both pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes.