Beijing schools teach green lessons

Beijing attaches great significance to devising diversified teaching methods of environmental education in middle and elementary schools in the city.

Wang Jun, head of the division of sports, hygiene and the arts for the Beijing education commission, said: "Environmental protection and sustainable development are the most concerning issues of the modern world.

"Education on environmental protection is an important component of quality-oriented education. That's why we promote environmental education in Beijing's middle and primary schools."

Since the Ministry of Education issued a guideline on environmental education for middle and primary schools in 2003, the Beijing education commission has asked its subordinate schools to combine environmental education with the teaching of other disciplines, and include practical activities.

Teachers have since paid special attention to raising students' environmental awareness in their daily lives and activities, as well as the importance of saving energy and resources and fulfilling their social responsibility through environmental conservation.

All middle schools and primary schools in Beijing have launched campaigns to build "green" and "civilized and harmonious" campuses and "environmental education bases", and organized related activities, such as environmental knowledge contests and musical instruments made of recycled materials.

Beijing children are now showing increasingly higher environmental consciousness, the education commission said, and more and more schools have become environmentally friendly.

Many schools have organized field trips for their students to organizations and businesses related to natural resources, to learn about the importance of environmental protection and a low-carbon lifestyle.

Through these activities, the schools root environmental protection awareness deeply in the minds of tens of thousands of students, Wang said.

The schools have designed courses for environmental education according to the specific conditions of their locations, to ensure the lessons are interesting and informative.

Wang said the purpose of such education is to help young people develop correct values and concepts on environmental protection, and teach them to stay in harmony with the nature.

The Beijing education commission also encourages local middle schools and primary schools to make full use of quality education resources in local universities and institutes in a bid to train their teachers on environment-related subjects and courses.

The schools have organized extracurricular activities, field research, simulation games and case studies to motivate their students to understand the relationship between people and nature, and to look for solutions to environmental problems in their lives.

The Beijing education commission has also instructed schools to design environmental protection courses on the world climate conference in Copenhagen, a low-carbon economy, sustainable development and ecological civilization construction.

The teachers seek to stimulate the students' interest in the topics, and encourage them to discover practical environmental issues in their lives, use their knowledge to analyze and judge environmental issues and fulfill their environmental responsibility.

In November 2009, the commission approved a local textbook on the biology and environment of Miyun county in the north of Beijing.

In March 2010, the commission started preparing a similar textbook on Yanqing county for middle school and primary school students in Beijing.

Since 2010, promoting a low-carbon lifestyle has been a theme at the opening ceremonies of many schools. The teachers direct the students to plant flowers, grass and trees on the roof of buildings; encourage their neighbors to separate their garbage and recycle light bulbs. The students have formed interest groups in different environmental issues.

"More importantly, the students can also influence their families, friends and neighbors," Wang said. "Education is the foundation of environmental protection, and environmental education should be made an indispensable part of civil education."

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/08/2016 page24)