Educating the future

Students from 14 schools in the Metropole Central Education District are involved in a one year project which is aimed at educating children about water, waste management, energy efficiency and re-cycling.
 
The project was launched at the end of January in an effort to support the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The four major tenants of ESD are improving the quality of basic education, re orientating basic education programs, developing public understanding and awareness and providing training.
 
The project achieves these goals by emphasizing geography and mathematics as well as communication and language skills all with a slant towards the environment.
 
The project is supervised by Dr Kevin Winter, Senior lecturer in the department of Enviromental and Geographical Sciences at the Univeristy of Cape Town and Dr Peter Beets, a senior lecturer in the Education Department at Stellenbosch University.
 
The project involves grade ten students from a cross section of schools in the Metropole district - a mixture of independent, ex-Model C, Cape Flats and Township schools.
 
“ We will look at this project from a local, national continental and global scale using the national curriculum statement for geography and the integration of geography with language, mathematics, science and spatial technologies,” said project facilitator Penny Liknaitzky. Liknaitzky is the geography curriculum advisor for the Western Cape Education Department's, Education Metropole Central District.
 
The hope is to fulfill the tenanats of Education for sustainable development, whilst educating children about the importance of the environment.
 
“This project has come at the right time given the current areas of debate around climate change. We hope to take enviromental education from simply raising awareness and understanding to acting for change, Liknaitzky concluded.
 
The practical components of the project will focus on recycling, efficient energy use, establishing food gardens, as well as other green initiatives within each school.
 
For those who wish to get involved in the project, contact Ms Liknaitzky on 021 671 7088 or 083 251 9934.