Eco Schools – training young people in sustainability
Young people in Tamil Nadu and in Germany are attending special international sustainability schools to learn how to better manage water, waste, biodiversity, health etc. The schools are part of a network of 50,000 such institutions in 70 countries.
Transcript
00:00 What a nice change! Instead of learning in a classroom, these 5th grade girls at PSGR
00:07 Krishna Namal Nursery and Primary School in Coimbatore are working in their school's
00:13 garden today. Mushika already knows her way around.
00:17 We use plantain pith for making juice. It helps in curing kidney stones. Eating a banana
00:23 leaf is good for your health.
00:27 The seedlings were donated by an NGO and handed over during a small ceremony. Environmental
00:33 education is integrated into the curriculum here, starting in kindergarten.
00:39 This approach helps them understand the practical application of what they learn. In addition
00:45 to raising their awareness about the environment.
00:54 The school, which is located in the far west of Tamil Nadu, is an international sustainability
01:00 school.
01:01 The concept was developed about 30 years ago by the Foundation for Environmental Education
01:06 in Denmark.
01:07 The Centre for Environment Education in India has been a partner organisation since 2014.
01:14 The idea is to bring environmental education into schools and make it a fixed part of the
01:18 curriculum.
01:19 Schools here can apply for the International Green Flag Award, a distinction for sustainability
01:23 in Indian schools. 10 schools in Tamil Nadu have participated so far.
01:28 We are generally working on five themes which are identified as part of the India Green
01:35 Schools programme. And these themes include working on water related issues, biodiversity,
01:42 waste management, healthy living and climate change. And the idea is to look at their involvement
01:51 in at least three of these issues per year.
01:55 More than 7000 km away, students in a home economics class at the August Sunder School
02:01 in Berlin are cooking brunch.
02:04 The students are preparing for future vocational training. Some students have cognitive impairments
02:09 and can only hear a little, or not at all.
02:13 The students use ingredients that are organic and regional whenever possible. Environmental
02:18 consciousness is also part of their culinary training.
02:28 You have to really break it down piece by piece sometimes, but I think we manage it
02:32 pretty well. Plus, the students are quite capable, so surely something will stick.
02:39 The August Sunder School is also an international sustainability school. There are more than
02:44 50 of them in Berlin alone. The schools have to reapply for the title every year. Petra
02:49 Brändstetter, or one of her colleagues from Berlin's Senate administration, come by to
02:55 assess whether or not the school can keep the title.
03:05 First of all, it's very important for schools to just get started and choose two areas to
03:10 take action in, which are selected from a list of SDGs, or sustainable development goals,
03:15 which is very current. And of course it's very important that the schools actually take
03:19 efforts to do those things as a whole.
03:25 The school doesn't seem to run out of ideas for projects. The students recently submitted
03:29 a film about energy-saving tips to a competition. It also includes subtitles and sign language,
03:37 making it more accessible.
03:47 Young people are also taking initiative and selling organic dishes in the cafeteria that
03:52 they prepared themselves in the school kitchen. As part of their lessons, the school kids
03:56 also tend to extensive gardens. It allows young people to learn how to be responsible
04:03 by looking after the property's animals themselves.
04:12 It lays an egg every day. An organic egg.
04:18 Berlin is also feeling the effects of climate change. Summers are getting hotter and drier
04:22 here, and it rains less than it did in the past.
04:28 The situation isn't much better in Coimbatore. The city is also located in Tamil Nadu, and
04:33 thanks to environmental education, the students there understand the causes.
04:38 This causes glaciers in regions like Antarctica to melt, which leads to flooding in other
04:42 countries as the melted water flows into the oceans.
04:47 It's been getting warmer in recent years.
04:49 The land around me is getting more hot, and when I feel that, I do realize that the climate
04:55 is changing.
04:59 In a few years, we may not even be able to live the way we're living right now.
05:04 Environmental education is the focus of the lessons here. The students become ambassadors
05:08 who spread information about sustainability throughout the world. The concept is an essential
05:13 part of all sustainability schools. But is that challenging for teachers?
05:20 I hope that instead of a challenge, it simply becomes accepted practice. Our aim is that
05:25 even our students with special cognitive needs can experience regionality and seasonality,
05:31 and that they can grasp these concepts with their minds, hearts and hands.
05:38 It is easy for us. We start teaching children about plants, planting, and the environment
05:47 in elementary school. It's included in the syllabus, which makes it easier for them to
05:53 accept and understand.
05:55 Overcoming sea level increases.
06:00 Greenhouse effect.
06:05 There are over 60,000 environmental schools in more than 80 countries worldwide. Hopefully
06:10 the millions of students from the coming generation will one day treat the earth better than the
06:16 generations before them.
06:19 I'm not letting you home there.
06:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]