KIRKWOOD SCHOOL TO FORM PART OF INTERNATIONAL STUDY ON ‘GREEN EDUCATION ’

BY LAWRENCE ARMOED

A Kirkwood high school, which prides itself on its sustainability programmes, will form part of an international study on the impact of “green education” on pupils, their communities and surrounding environment.For the past four years, Colmcille Secondary School formed part of the international Eco Schools programme which teaches pupils about sustainability and the environment, while encouraging them to take the principles they learn home and into their neighbourhoods.

And now Colmcille has been selected as an example for an international study on the success of the programme.It is the only school in the Eastern Cape, and one of only a handful across SA, to be selected for the study.

“We take our title as an Eco School very seriously and we take great pride in the initiatives we run that go with that title,” history and social science teacher Eileen Watson said.

“We have really seen the interest among our pupils grow, and we like to believe we are making a difference in our broader community.”The Foundation for Environmental Education started developing the Eco Schools programme in 1992 in response to a need identified at the United Nations’ Environment and Development conference.

The initiative was officially launched in 1994 and has grown to the point where it is active in 59,000 schools across 74 countries.

In SA, the initiative was first implemented by the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA in 2003, and more than 4,500 schools, and more than one-million pupils, have formed part of the programme.

According to Watson, Colmcille registered as an Eco School in 2018 as they believed it would relate well to pupils in a no-fees school where many of the parents work in the agricultural industry.

“Many of our 1,134 pupils’ parents work on the citrus farms surrounding Kirkwood.

“They already have a close connection with the land, so we looked to further instil a love for the environment through the teaching initiatives of the Eco School programme,” Watson said.

One of the areas being explored by the international study into Eco School’s success is inequality and how schools with limited resources manage to implement and incorporate environmental and sustainability studies in their schooling.

“One of the earliest values we instilled in our pupils was the value of life, everything from people to insects.