Education program gives students an early start in environmental protection

A Feast of Poison shows ice cream shaped like a melting planet Earth, and above it is a person in a gas mask wolfing down the treat along with industrial waste, car exhaust fumes and something labeled "PM2.5", referring to the tiny particles of pullution that can cause lung damage in humans.

The design, created by 16-year-old Tian Xue from Xi'an in northern China, won first prize in a national competition in August aimed at raising awareness of climate change and environmental protection among students.

Pupils of Jiangdong Central Primary School, Niangbo, Zhejiang province, gather to collect garbage left behind by tourists at tourist site. Zhang Zhouxiang / China Daily

A Feast of Poison, a prize-winning poster in the contest. Zhang Zhouxiang / China Daily

Her entry was chosen from the 100 submitted by 32 schools nationwide under the theme "Concern About Climate Change and How to Prevent It". In addition to posters, students also entered photographs, micro-movies and plays.

"If you want to fundamentally rein in climate change and make our ecological environment better, the best way is to tell the next generation," says Huang Haoming, secretary-general of the China Association for NGO Cooperation, which organized the contest. "We choose to share the knowledge mainly with middle school students rather than at primary schools because the former are young enough to accept new knowledge and old enough to have a sense of social responsibility."

The association, commonly known as CANGO, launched the contest as part of a wider program that also includes training for middle school teachers and a textbook on green issues.

Huang says the middle schools taking part had been carefully selected to ensure a mix from metropolises like Beijing and smaller, more-rural cities like Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province.

"Climate change is a concern for everyone," he says. "We hope people from the cities and the countryside will share the responsibility for our mutual destiny."

Between December 2012 and August this year, 810 teachers from 449 middle schools in 10 cities across five provinces have received environmental training from CANGO.

Initially, Huang says he was astonished to find even some teachers lacked basic knowledge about climate change. For example, some had never heard of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement forged in Japan in 1997 aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions, or knew that China had signed it. Therefore, he says, the course had to be designed to include the basic facts, such as on the Copenhagen Conference and other multinational resolutions, as well as teaching methods to show them how to share the information effectively.

He says the emphasis was on teaching through fun, so the methods teachers learned in the course involved games and practical exercises that get the environmental message across to young people. One exercise in the textbook is making soap from used cooking oil.

Prizewinner Tian was one of hundreds of students who enjoyed such classes. So too was Lia Jiayao, a middle school student in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, who won a prize in the CANGO contest for her poster, No, Not Until She Drowns. The design shows a ballet dancer slowly sinking into melting ice.

The model saw teachers provide 20 classes on climate change in their own school and another 43 in schools that were not directly part of the program.

"It's like a chain reaction, with every point receiving knowledge that can be passed on," Huang says. "It improves the efficiency in spreading the idea of the need to curb climate change among young students."

Wang Ruilin, 12, who attends a primary school in the coastal city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, was the youngest participant in the CANGO program. Her class went on a trip to Baoguo Temple, a popular tourist spot, where they were asked to collect garbage and then calculate the carbon footprint of each item.

She and three classmates also designed a poster that features a cyclist. It did not win a prize, but still she says: "Through the poster we can show people the need to fight climate change, and that's enough."

Liu Yang, who teaches Tian in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, says she had absorbed much knowledge during the program.

"Actually, we already had environmental education in our school, but through the contest we have learned more facts about climate change," she says. "For example, we learned about carbon footprints, how much carbon dioxide is emitted due to our daily activities. That has helped us to form more environmentally friendly habits."

Huang says four experts spent three years drafting the textbook, with an advisory board composed of Chinese environmental experts, including academicians and scientists. The NGO is still in the process of persuading the Ministry of Education to introduce the textbook and other environmental courses into the middle school curriculum.

"Introducing environmental education to public schools is a global problem," he says. "We hope deputies to the National People's Congress (China's legislature) will make a move in the next annual session (in March). At least students need extracurricular lectures to get the necessary knowledge."

To make more resources available, CANGO has been attempting to rally support from the government and has formed a guidance committee made up of experts from the National Development and Reform Commission's climate change department and other domestic institutions. Yet Huang says it is still proving difficult to convince more public schools to open their doors.

"Many principals simply don't care because joining our program won't earn them any credit in the bureaucratic system," he says. "Some of them even refuse our visits just because we aren't from the local government. More measures are needed to encourage them to care for our environment."

Most of the middle schools that now work with CANGO were recruited through its network of NGOs, which have long cooperated with educators and already have their trust. German organization Brot Fuer Die Welt, or Bread for the World, has also provided funding.

Huang says one achievement that makes him proud is China's increased participation in global efforts to combat climate change. The CANGO textbook includes a timeline of the country's actions, starting - earlier than some people may expect - in 1990, when the State Council established a coordination team under a commission of environmental protection.

"The problem of climate change was realized long ago by global and domestic experts, yet progress was slow until the past 10 years," Huang says. "We must find innovative ways so that the next generation knows it earlier. There is a long way ahead, but we're determined to get there."

zhangzhouxiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 09/25/2015 page16)