Teachers of different schools at the training programme on “Eco Green Project”. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, Oct. 13: Government school students have taken up the green cause. The students will be part of “eco-clubs” in schools to spread environment awareness.

Selected teachers from the government schools that would start eco-clubs participated in a training programme organised here today.

Though, as a pilot project, the clubs would be started in only 100 model schools, the number of participants in the training programme has been high.

The concept of eco-clubs is an offshoot of National Green Corps initiated by the Union ministry of forest and environment and the Central Pollution Control Board.

The programme would be launched in all states and the district administration, in association with the State Pollution Control Board, would coordinate different activities.

Each eco-club would constitute 50 students selected from the school with a teacher as a guide and patron of the club.

The teacher will select the activities to be undertaken by the club each year.

The eco-clubs would take up environmental issues and have a fixed curriculum calendar comprising quiz, debates, essay writing, painting and other competitions to spread environment awareness. The club members would also be assigned project work, which would be later put on display.

Project work for students will include survey of water bodies, listing of plants, birds and insects in the area, survey on the level of sound and air pollution in the busy thoroughfares of the city.

The club members will be provided with arm bands.

“Awareness is the basic idea behind constituting an eco-club. Everyone knows about environment and pollution, but there is no fresh method to tackle the problem. The eco-club is aimed to hit the problem at its root and start with children at the school-level,” said master trainer M.P. Mishra.

Mishra, who underwent training at the Environmental Education Centre, Lucknow, feels confident that the teachers undergoing training will form a good team after they return to their respective schools. “Children are easy to mould and if we can drive into them the ill effects of pollution we can hope they will not commit the mistakes we have done,” said Mishra.