US$2 million environmental education programme aims to change the nature of teaching over the next three years
China's Ministry of Education, the World Wide Fund for Nature and British Petroleum this week launched the third phase of a US$2 million environmental education project aimed at embedding 'education for a sustainable environment' into the mainland's schools.
The third phase of the Environmental Educators' Initiative (EEI) programme, which will run from 2005-2007, will focus on integrating the National Environment Education Guidelines, based on the EEI model, into teachers' lesson plans and activities in 500,000 primary and middle schools in China.
Alex Marston, communications co-ordinator for WWF education programmes in China, said the new guidelines, issued by the ministry in 2003, would be applied in all schools in China. The aim was to integrate environmental education throughout the school curriculum.
'It's not just about the environment, but about looking at education in a more holistic way,' Mr Marston said.
'This is not just the teacher standing in front of the class, but getting the students involved in taking action themselves.'
The key to the success of the programme over the next three years was to find a way to implement it in local areas, he said. It was important to get the local education bureaus on board because the 'real power lies with those bureaus,' he added.