Apr 06 2009
Update from Rakshanda Ovais Shareef
FOSTER ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE THROUGH SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT CLUB
In July 2008, I had the privilege to attend one month’s certificate course, Pakistani Educational Leadership Institute (PELI), at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, USA. The course, which was a collaborated effort of Plymouth State University and Idara-e- Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), focused on active and responsible citizenship in ‘Stewardship of Environment and Cultural Heritage Preservation’. This gave me an opportunity to get one of the wonderful experiences of cultural exchange and to enhance knowledge and skills about environment and cultural heritage preservation.
Now, the question arises… what is my contribution in my own context as a result of my experience and learning abroad? Well, to be honest, I am quite happy to consider my self as an ‘environmental change agent’ because on my return, I established an Environmental Club in my school.
Why Environmental Club? What was the rationale?
I had learnt during the course that School Environmental Club is an effective way of promoting environmental education. I decided to apply theory into practice by conducting a small study in my school. My focus was to see the impact of environmental club on the behavior and disposition of students. As a pilot project, I involved twelve volunteers from grade VIII, for a period of six months from Sept. 2008 to Feb. 2009. In order to collect data, I asked club members to maintain their reflective journals. Besides, I regularly held reflective sessions to gauge their knowledge and understanding about the environmental issues and how they feel about it.
During the process, first of all, I conducted sessions to develop club members’ knowledge and understanding about the environmental issue, then, I held their elections and assigned them the roles, and lastly, I empowered them to take responsible actions as ‘environmental stewards’. As a result of students’ involvement in environmental club activities, I slowly and gradually began to witness a positive change in their behavior and disposition towards environmental issues. They started to understand their role and responsibility in maintaining a clean environment. One of the club members wrote in his reflective journal;
“I am very happy to be a part of this club. I enjoyed very much with my friends and my facilitator, thank you all. I am now very careful about my environment. As environmental stewards we are the role models. (Mohammad Bilal, 12/02/09).
In order to create environmental awareness, the club members organized Poster Competition and Cleanliness Week for the Primary children. They encouraged students to recycle small cans and boxes to make their respective waste bins for throwing wrappers and pencil shavings.
After the success of the pilot project, the school management is now considering to extend environmental club to the whole school. I have developed resource material and will be conducting session for the teachers to facilitate smooth implementation of environmental club at the school level.
—
Rakshanda Ovais Shareef (rakshandaovais@gmail.com)
Professional Development Teacher
Fatimiyah Education Network-Karachi
