Begin environment awareness from school: Experts

Nagpur: “Nature is the first teacher and it has taught us everything we know. Keeping that in mind teachers in schools should pick up the baton and make children aware of preserving our environment,” said Kishore Mishrikotkar, deputy director of Samajik Vanikaran Vibhag, Nagpur, at a discussion on ‘Environment protection: Teachers’ contribution’ at Dhanwate hall, Shankar Nagar on Monday. Event was organized by Vanarai Foundation. Principal of Solmalwar Nikalas Mahila Mahavidyalaya Seema Somalwar, coordinator of Krishi Vikas Prathishthan Nitin Jatkar, Prakash Kolhe and Vijay Ilurkar participated in the discussion. Deputy director of education, Nagpur, Anil Pardhi was as the chief guest.

The participants deliberated on all possible options to spread environmental awareness among the students from reading about environmental impact to planting saplings in schools. “Students always support what teachers teach them, so if they teach protecting our natural resources we will be able to sustain ourselves much better,” said Jatkar. Global warming was highlighted as a major concern and its impacting on the natural weather system. “Our water resources are diminishing as temperature is rising. As a result floods caused by storms are increasing,” said Ilurkar. The government is helping to some extent by modifying the teaching material. “The UGC had included environmental education in school syllabus and more recently it has been made a compulsory subject in graduation and post-graduation courses as well,” said Somalwar.
Commercialization is also impacting the environment which is leading to over-exploitation of natural resources, said Mishrikotkar. “We have a tendency to blame enterprises but in the end we are consuming their products. So why should nature sacrifice for us?” he asked. Teachers are willing to take a stand and educate children to protect nature. “Each student should plant a sapling in his/her school right at the start and take care of it till school is finished,” said Kolhe.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.