Green points
How Green is your school?
The Gobar Times-Green Schools Programme (GT-GSP), involving over 1600 schools,
recently completed a year. Children all over India are assessing the green performance of
their schools. From Delhi to Pune and Meerut to Kolkata, numerous schools are going green
- or should we say, checking how green they are?
 |
| Hey wait! What is GT-GSP? All this
while schools gave marks to students. Now it's the students' turn. In GT-GSP the students
use Green Schools Manuals to assess the environmental practices of their school. |
The Manual includes great activities, in which you go on
exploring trips around the school to collect information about use and management of
resources. But don't think this is just another picnic. This is a responsible survey,
which many huge industries conduct too. Collecting and interpreting information will help
you learn about some important environmental issues - water, waste, etc. The interesting
part is that you get to give marks to your school!
You will prepare your school's report card that will feature subjects like Water and Air
instead of Maths and History. You look at your report card to know your weak subjects,
right? Now, the report card you make will help your school to understand how it has fared
on the environment front. It can then identify areas where it can improve so that next
year the report card looks better.
 Panditji has really been working hard to train teachers
on how to use the Green Schools Manual, with children. Yes! he is a busy man, training
teachers of National Green Corps (NGC) schools of Delhi. He has also trained teachers of
the Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Delhi Public School Society and Kendriya Vidyalaya
Sangathan. So now there is a swelling brigade of students auditing their schools this
year.
There is more. Schools implementing this programme, have formed a network called the Gobar
Times Green Schools Network. Member schools of this network will get support from
Panditji's team on conducting the survey. Teachers of these schools will get free activity
letters every month loaded with heaps of interesting activities on environmental issues.
Feeling jealous that you are not a part of it? Well, your school can join the network too.
All it has to do is register on our website and then you can upload data and points scored
by your school using the Data Reporting System (DRS). That's not all. Based on the
results, Panditji would be giving the Gobar Times Green Schools Award to the school which
performs best. This national level award is an annual event. And, there's a special Gobar
Times Award for the best student audit team as well. So get a copy of Green Schools Manual
(turn to page 75) and start the programme in your school.
To know more write to:
Environment Education Unit,
Centre for Science and Environment,
41, Tughlaqabad Institutional Area, New Delhi -62
or mail to panditji@cseindia.org
|
