‘Don’t pay fees in cash, pay in plastic’

That’s what a Guwahati school told parents. This and other environment protection ideas adopted by schools now feature in a digi publication

Dr Alaka Sharma, executive director of Akshar Foundation says that students at Akshar Education Model, Guwahati, spend an hour daily after school, shoving plastic bags into bottles, so that they acquire the density of a brick. These are then used to build pathways

For the longest time, environmental studies wasn’t graded in schools, due to which students rarely took it seriously. Several schools are now hoping to change that. Climate Literacy: Beyond the Written Word, a digital publication, which is produced by Earth Day Network, has put the spotlight on 20 such schools and organisations that are leading the way with path-breaking environmental initiatives.

From building plastic roads, growing vegetable gardens, spreading awareness via school radio, theatre programmes and hand murals, schools are making the environment part of everyday conversation.

Dr Alaka Sharma

In a pioneering effort, Akshar Education Model, situated in Pamohi village on the outskirts of Guwahati, charges school fees in the form of plastic bags every week. “Plastic burning is quite common in these areas. So, we gave the parents an option to either pay school fees or give us 25 plastic bags every week,” says Dr Alaka Sharma, executive director of Akshar Foundation.

The parents chose the latter, she says. The senior students spend an hour daily after school, shoving these bags into plastic bottles, so that the bottles acquire the density of a brick. These are then used to build used to build pathways near the school as the area is low-lying, says Dr Sharma.

Chandrama Pradhan, Pragati Chaswal and Dr Sneha Nalla

Sri Sri Academy in Siliguri also ensures that its students are involved in clean-up drives across the neighbourhood. Besides this, the school has a vegetable garden where every student is involved in the process of growing. “We provide meals [in the school], and have now started sourcing the produce from our organic garden,” says school principal Chandrama Pradhan. As part of experimental learning, they also bring various domestic animals into the campus. Students are taught to pet and feed them.

Several schools have roped in Delhi-based Pragati Chaswal, who runs a farming programme called SowGood. She started with a small farm in a horse-riding school in Delhi, and later expanded with a full-fledged curriculum for government and private schools. Besides this, she also owns a farm in Chattarpur, where she holds six-month-long programmes, where every child is given a ‘mini khet,’ and the freedom to grow whatever they want. Inayatt Gogia, a 13-year-old, has been visiting Chaswal’s farm for the last four years. “It has made me a better person. I now think twice when I’m using plastic.”

Dr Sneha Nalla, director of Nalla Malla Reddy Foundation School, Hyderabad, has modified the concept of school houses. She has integrated the houses with elements of nature. So, green house is earth, red is fire, blue is water and yellow is air. This way, children are acquainted with the environment right from kindergarten. Every alternate day, students go for nature walks around the campus. Their curriculum also includes activities like debates and skits, all of which are conducted beneath a tree, so that “the students stay connected with nature,” says Dr Nalla. 

Apart from this, the campus also has a rainwater harvesting pit and vegetable garden. The idea, she says, is to make them think “out of the book”.

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