Means of environmental awareness through formal education
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Some of the major ways to organize environmental education system are as follows: (b) Formal Education (b) Non formal Education.
(a) Formal Education:
Formal education is given in schools, colleges and a university etc., limited to a specific period, and has a well defined and systematic curriculum.
The best approach in any awareness programme is to propagate through children and youth as they quickly take to new ideas and are the future activists. Formal environmental education should begin at the primary school level.
Curriculum should be constructed taking into account the class and age of the students. The content at the primary stage must be easily accessible to the young minds and so the emphasis should be on building up the environmental awareness in the child.
By lower secondary level, the child is conscious about the physical, social and aesthetic aspects of environment. At this stage and beyond, inter-disciplinary approach must be adopted and so the emphasis must be on increasing the knowledge about environmental problems, conservation and sustainable development.
The medium of imparting environmental education is not only through books but also through first hand experiences in field activities and eco-development camps etc. The activities in environmental educational system vary from place to place as the environmental conditions and needs vary from place to place.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have developed a curriculum framework based on which many good text books, charts and other teaching aids have been designed. University Grants Commission (UGC) has the main responsibility of environmental education at post graduate level.
Environment is a part of the curriculum of mainly the biology courses in Universities and is taught as environmental engineering in many engineering colleges, polytechnic colleges and most Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT’s).
Environmental engineering includes subjects like civil engineering, town and country planning, environment improvement of urban slums, human settlements, landscaping, industrial design, designing environmental friendly technologies and environmental impact assessment for sustainable development.
Environmental management includes subjects like land-use, agriculture, waste management, wildlife management, conservation of natural resources, forestry, national parks, water-resources management, biosphere reserves etc. Besides these main subjects there are topics dealing with the health and welfare of human beings, for instance, hygiene, toxicology, occupational health, nutrition, chemical engineering etc.
At post graduate level, environmental education also includes social ecology i.e. human ecology, sociology, psychology, counseling, cost-benefit aspects, environmental ethics etc.
Case studies must be constructed at identified areas as dissertation and field work reports and research must be conducted on specific environmental problems related to the local environment. Environmental legislation is also a part of the curriculum and it includes environmental policies and environmental protection laws etc.
Present situation of formal Environmental Education in India:
There are nearly two hundred departments of environmental studies in the universities and colleges all over India. They offer degree or diploma programmes covering all aspects of environmental sciences and engineering.
There are also diplomas, bachelor’s degree, M.Sc, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes in environmental sciences or environmental studies. Besides these, M.E., M.Tech and Ph.D programmes in environmental engineering are offered by Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering departments.
Post graduate degree programmes in environmental management and courses, which lead to M.Sc in environmental chemistry/biology/geology or environmental toxicology, are also available.
Environmental education at doctoral level is also available in a large number of autonomous Research and Development (R & D) institutions founded by central government, state governments and agencies such as CSIR, ICAR and ICMR i.e. formal education in environmental science or engineering is available in India up to the highest possible level.
What needs to be done is restructuring of environmental studies programmes so as to produce instead of generalists, professionals whose forte is Environmental Botany or Environmental Zoology/Chemistry/Economics/Sociology etc.
These courses should have relatively specific curricula having provisions for training students in specialisations such as forest ecology, Limnology, marine ecology, environmental analysis, pollution studies, environmental toxicology etc.
(a) Formal Education:
Formal education is given in schools, colleges and a university etc., limited to a specific period, and has a well defined and systematic curriculum.
The best approach in any awareness programme is to propagate through children and youth as they quickly take to new ideas and are the future activists. Formal environmental education should begin at the primary school level.
Curriculum should be constructed taking into account the class and age of the students. The content at the primary stage must be easily accessible to the young minds and so the emphasis should be on building up the environmental awareness in the child.
By lower secondary level, the child is conscious about the physical, social and aesthetic aspects of environment. At this stage and beyond, inter-disciplinary approach must be adopted and so the emphasis must be on increasing the knowledge about environmental problems, conservation and sustainable development.
The medium of imparting environmental education is not only through books but also through first hand experiences in field activities and eco-development camps etc. The activities in environmental educational system vary from place to place as the environmental conditions and needs vary from place to place.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have developed a curriculum framework based on which many good text books, charts and other teaching aids have been designed. University Grants Commission (UGC) has the main responsibility of environmental education at post graduate level.
Environment is a part of the curriculum of mainly the biology courses in Universities and is taught as environmental engineering in many engineering colleges, polytechnic colleges and most Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT’s).
Environmental engineering includes subjects like civil engineering, town and country planning, environment improvement of urban slums, human settlements, landscaping, industrial design, designing environmental friendly technologies and environmental impact assessment for sustainable development.
Environmental management includes subjects like land-use, agriculture, waste management, wildlife management, conservation of natural resources, forestry, national parks, water-resources management, biosphere reserves etc. Besides these main subjects there are topics dealing with the health and welfare of human beings, for instance, hygiene, toxicology, occupational health, nutrition, chemical engineering etc.
At post graduate level, environmental education also includes social ecology i.e. human ecology, sociology, psychology, counseling, cost-benefit aspects, environmental ethics etc.
Case studies must be constructed at identified areas as dissertation and field work reports and research must be conducted on specific environmental problems related to the local environment. Environmental legislation is also a part of the curriculum and it includes environmental policies and environmental protection laws etc.
Present situation of formal Environmental Education in India:
There are nearly two hundred departments of environmental studies in the universities and colleges all over India. They offer degree or diploma programmes covering all aspects of environmental sciences and engineering.
There are also diplomas, bachelor’s degree, M.Sc, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes in environmental sciences or environmental studies. Besides these, M.E., M.Tech and Ph.D programmes in environmental engineering are offered by Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering departments.
Post graduate degree programmes in environmental management and courses, which lead to M.Sc in environmental chemistry/biology/geology or environmental toxicology, are also available.
Environmental education at doctoral level is also available in a large number of autonomous Research and Development (R & D) institutions founded by central government, state governments and agencies such as CSIR, ICAR and ICMR i.e. formal education in environmental science or engineering is available in India up to the highest possible level.
What needs to be done is restructuring of environmental studies programmes so as to produce instead of generalists, professionals whose forte is Environmental Botany or Environmental Zoology/Chemistry/Economics/Sociology etc.
These courses should have relatively specific curricula having provisions for training students in specialisations such as forest ecology, Limnology, marine ecology, environmental analysis, pollution studies, environmental toxicology etc.
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