While Indian academia and academics struggle to formally integrate environment education (EE) into school and collegiate curriculums, the neighbouring People’s Republic of China (PRC) has adopted a structured and holistic approach to attain this objective by undertaking a national initiative to train teachers to dispense EE in their classrooms. Under a unique programme launched in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), China, the ministry of education and British Petroleum, 690,000 school teachers are being trained to develop hands-on, interactive classroom practices and create awareness and understanding of environment issues and challenges. Christened the Environmental Educators’ Initiative (EEI), the prime goal of this national teacher training drive is to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into school curriculums across China.
Since EEI was launched as a pilot programme in 1997, great strides have been made in terms of influencing national policy; establishing a comprehensive network of specialised education centres and pilot schools; curriculum development; and publication of numerous teaching books and manuals to deepen understanding of ESD in China.
EEI was started as a teacher-training programme for environmental educators. Three of the country’s leading teacher-training universities (Beijing Normal University, Southwest Normal University, Chongqing and East China Normal University, Shanghai) collaborated with the largest education publishing company (People’s Education Press) to conduct environmental workshops across China. Together with WWF, representatives from these institutions held workshops for 300 teachers in November 1998 and subsequently published EEI’s first teacher training manual.
In the second phase (2000-04) of implementation, nine more universities joined the initiative. The nine universities participated in the training of teacher-advisors from each province of China. By 2003, the number of teacher-advisors, who develop ESD resources with pilot schools, had grown to over 3,000 countrywide.
The same year (2003) China’s ministry of education approved the National Environmental Education Guidelines, a 46-page booklet explaining ways and means to integrate ESD into school curriculums across China. The guidelines were jointly developed by curriculum reform experts from the education ministry, representatives of EEI education centres and members of WWF’s education team.
In its third phase (2005-07), the prime objective of EEI was to institutionalise the National Environmental Education Guidelines in primary and middle schools nationwide. Local education bureaus were set up to deliver an action plan and conduct training programmes for primary and middle school teachers. Under EEI, innovative resource materials including an interactive website providing resource materials and help on lesson planning are being developed for teachers.
Moreover to ensure integration of best environment education teaching practices within mainstream education, the ESD programme is being integrated with the teacher training curriculum of China’s future educators, particularly within the Education Theory course, a compulsory subject for all of China’s trainee teachers.
These achievements have led to environment educators enhancing their skills and knowledge in promoting ESD in schools. Now Chinese school children have the benefit of receiving structured and focused ESD education from trained and experienced teachers. Extremely successful in its reach, EEI has impacted not only future ESD programmes in China, but also the future of China’s overall education development.
(Excerpted and adapted from www.wwfchina.org)