The future of environmental education
As the new term starts, many schools will be devoting more time to environmental education, but the resources available to support schools can be a postcode lottery. Catherine Doran, Head of Education and Community at Waste Watch, gives her assessment and spells out what needs to be done.
Schools are responsible for 15% of UK public sector carbon emissions - a hefty 9.4 million tonnes equivalent per year. Yet just two per cent of this is the result of waste; the major contributors being procurement and transport. That said, waste, or more specifically waste education, is acknowledged as playing an important role in encouraging wider sustainable behaviour.
There is also evidence of growing concern among young people and schools about the environment. In July, Defra's Climate Change Youth Tracker Survey showed that six in ten secondary school pupils were worried about climate change and, according to Encams, more than 40% of schools in England are now signed up to the Eco Schools programme.
Government support still largely comes through at a policy level; for example the National Sustainable Schools Framework, launched in 2006, which aspires to make all schools models of sustainability by 2020. This has led to a proliferation of various school toolkits, e-resources, best practice guidance and green accreditation schemes to support schools.
However the effectiveness of these types of resources and the extent to which they are used and actually help schools is not clear. What is currently lacking is the formal commitment and funding by the Government to provide face-to-face waste and environmental education in schools on a national level.
The degree to which the education sector's interest in sustainability is being converted into effective, whole school environmental action and learning, has also been queried by a recent report by OFSTED (2008). Out of 41 schools visited in 2006/07, the majority had limited knowledge of sustainability and what work was being done was often uncoordinated and confined to special events, rather than integrated into the curriculum.
This has led the education commissioner at the Sustainable Development Commission, Ann Finlayson, to suggest schools have reached a "Tigger" stage in their progress towards a greener future. "There is lots of enthusiasm and lots of action, but it is a bit bouncy in places and it isn't everywhere".
Part of the problem has been the absence of a peak body to co-ordinate and drive forward the views of environmental educators. Waste Watch has been at the forefront of trying to change this by setting up the Waste Watch Education Network, which provides best practice advice, support, training and resources to waste educators and local authority officers across the country. The launch this November of SEEd (Sustainability and Environmental Education) by the Council for Environmental Education should also push Education for Sustainable Development into the mainstream of the education system. But it is obvious that more needs to be done.
First, we need to take a long-term, holistic approach. Since the early nineties, Waste Watch has established measurable, curriculum-linked education programmes which engage the whole school as well as parents and the surrounding community. Programmes such as 'Take Home Action on Waste', 'Schools Waste Action Club' and 'Recycler the rapping robot' are still running over ten years on.
Second, there needs to be a clear legal driver for local authorities and schools to reduce waste, accompanied by more investment. In the same way energy use in schools will now count towards the total emissions of local authorities under the Carbon Reduction Commitment, targets should also be set for reducing school waste.
Finally, there needs to be a more effective way to benchmark and quantify schools' progress towards sustainability, allowing comparisons to be drawn between schools and resources to be better targeted. Accreditation schemes are useful for rewarding schools, but they don't rigorously monitor actual improvements over time.
From our own experience, many teachers and waste educators are doing great work to make their schools local beacons of sustainability. But without more consistent, long-term funding and on-the-ground support, the Government's 2020 deadline may not be met.
For further information visit our Education and Training pages.
This Waste Watch article can also be found in the September 08 issue of Resource magazine.
