Meeting of Greater Gangtok Area Heads of School

Date: 29th January 2005

Time: 10.00 a.m.

Venue: Chumby Residency

The purpose of the Meeting was:

•      To brief the Heads of Schools in the Greater Gangtok Area on the Ecowatch Program, in particular the Environment Education component of the program.

•      To seek their inputs into the deliverables that had been charted out in the previous meeting of the Steering Committee and meetings with focus groups.

•      To understand the challenges facing the schools in implementing environment education in schools.

Invitations were extended to all Heads of Schools in the Greater Gangtok Area including

interested teachers and members of the Steering Committee. Participants came from both private and government schools.

The meeting commenced with Mr. P D Rai giving a background of the Ecowatch

Program and the purpose of the meeting. This was followed by Mrs. Wendy Pulger giving a detailed background on the Education Component and the deliverables that the program sought to achieve. The meeting was then opened up to discussion with focus on the deliverables.

Outcomes

General

•      Participants mainly representing government schools expressed concern that given the priority placed on completing the syllabus in a time bound manner the program may divert time and effort away from this. Besides many schools did not have adequate open space to carry out the program. Absence of boundary fencing and inadequate water supply compounded the difficulty. Teachers tend to have a set number of class periods and any "additional activity" generally meant a demand to be relieved of an equivalent number of periods.

•      The response from the private schools however was quite different. Students were interested and engaged in a range of environment related activities. These schools also used SUPW provisions for practical environment related activities.

•      It was pointed out that environmental education was now mandatory in schools and that at the state level with the "greening of the textbooks" environment education is part of the curriculum and not an added burden. The need therefore to examine the school routine / class timetable and bring environment education into sharper focus.

•      Participants agreed that the idea that environment education should only be taught by science teachers should be changed.

§         With regard to incentives participants felt that teachers could respond positively to incentives such as commendations/certificates.

§         It was agreed that schools would be selected for the program based on their response to an invitation that would be sent out to all schools to participate in the program. This would ensure the selecting of schools that are truly interested in implementing the program.

Handbook

§         There was a general feeling that environmental education must start at the Primary level so that knowledge, awareness and attitudes / practices are ingrained at an early age.

§         The participants felt that teacher resource book on environmental education would be useful and that it needs to be simple and practical. However it was also pointed out that there were several resource books already available produced by Environmental Education Center and other publishers and whether there was any need to replicate the effort. It was agreed that these materials would be reviewed.

§         Some of the participants pointed out that a large number of students came from tenanted households and therefore the handbook should factor their lifestyles and the constraints they live under.

§         Some participants gave illustrations of how teachers use nature to teach and to teach effectively. It was agreed that if there was a way of tapping into the pool of tried and tested teaching methods amongst the teaching community it would be invaluable input for the handbook.

Workshops

§         The workshops would also impart effective instructional methods, effective use of the handbook and integration of environmental education into the various disciplines.

The meeting concluded by a power point presentation by Mr. P D Rai on the relevance of environmental education in today's global context.

Registered Participants “Heads of the School Meet”

Date: 29^th January 2005

Venue: Chumbi residency