We are organising an environmental education carnival for the school children in Petaling Jaya. Efforts to recruit participation is on going now with many have responded positively and with enthusiasm, but there are teachers who have given us a BIG NO. They reasoned that each time an event organised by other agencies, the easier target is the school children. School children are not only invited for inter-school functions at district, state or federal level, but also required for functions like parade during festive season, reception parade to receive the VVIP, anti-social ills campaign launching such as anti-drug, anti-smoking, anti-littering, anti-loitering etc. It makes so little time for the school children to concentrate on their study.
So, the question is shall a line be drawn here? what kind of community programmes or non-curriculum events that warrant for students' participation? Is the Environmental Education Carnival good and appropriate for them?
Environmental Education and Awareness under the Chapter 36, Agenda 21 calls upon all sector to raise our awareness, understanding, knowledge and skills in achieving sustainable development. The scope of sustainable development should be well covered in our school syllabus, especially the primary school as children during young age is easy to accept changes, for the better. If the school syllabus has not given much attention to this aspect, then as Local Authority, MBPJ has the responsibility to step in and to collaborate with the schools and NGOs for this event. With that, i think the teachers who have said NO should refresh and consider again participating for this event. To deny the students passage for environmental education is tantamount to not allowing them freedom to acquire knowledge to SAVE the EARTH.
What say you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment