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The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) recently shared its efforts on educating for sustainability in Abu Dhabi schools to over 75 academic professionals at the International Greening Education Event (IGEE) 2010 in Karlsruhe, Germany. The global experts commended EAD’s efforts for designing and running world-class environmental education initiatives for both students and teaching professionals.
The IGEE conference was a major event for leading educational institutions from around the world to discuss the best models of environmental education and to debate new ways to integrate sustainability into teaching.
EAD presented a keynote paper - “Educating for Sustainability” - by Ms. Fozeya Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, Manager of EAD’s Environmental Education Department, and Gayatri Raghwa, Deputy Manager of the Environmental Education Department. The audience praised the Education team’s programmes, including its Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI), the Annual Environment Competition, and the Enviro-Spellathon. EAD also presented the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) flagship programme on water education in the Arab World which is led by EAD in Abu Dhabi, and other campaigns such as clean-ups.
Commenting on its involvement, H.E Majid Al Mansouri, EAD’s Secretary General said: “One of our missions at EAD is to educate this and future generations on the importance of protecting our environment and living a greener lifestyle. Training today’s educators is the first step in achieving this goal. Our participation in this event has allowed us to effectively reach out to academic professionals on the international level, and share knowledge and best practices that could be disseminated to students for years to come.”
EAD is currently reaching out to hundreds educators and students with its flagship project, Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI). The SSI is a programme where teachers and students assess their school’s environmental impact and set targets to address it. It aims to empower students through eco clubs, develop teachers’ capacity through training, and exposes students to experiential learning through hands-on field trips. The SSI was thrown open for all schools in Abu Dhabi Emirate to participate as of this academic year, and has so far, signed up over 100 schools.
EAD also launched a ‘Training of Trainers’ (TOT) programme where the Agency’s Education team trains educators. Teachers across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi have been taken on various site visits and are now capable of delivering the message to their students.
The aim of the training programme is to advance teachers’ environmental knowledge and to equip them with the required skills on how to assess their school’s environmental impact, how to set targets to address, how to establish a school eco-club, as well as how to conduct successful field research with their students.
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