Achievements The most significant achievement was the mainstreaming of the programme in Assam by the State Education System. The programme has been endorsed by Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education. Other remarkable achievements include the orientation of more than 1,200 teachers in Assam on ESD issues, including biodiversity conservation, water and sanitation, energy conservation, waste management, and culture and heritage. School campuses are cleaner since schools participating in the programmes are taking the initiative to keep their campuses clean. It is very challenging as most of the schools don’t have boundary walls or fencing around campuses, as well as proper water and sanitation facilities. Plantation drives by schools have led to the planting of local plant species and the increase in campus greenery. Some schools have set up medicinal plant gardens. Some of the urban schools have replaced their tungsten bulbs with CFL bulbs, which have considerably reduced the electricity consumption of the schools. The programme has also helped change the behavior of children, who used to kill or chase away birds, butterflies and other animals in the schools. Now, the children are more caring of the animals they see on campus. The various school networks have also been strengthened through programmes such as the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and National Children Science Congress in the State. Students and teachers guided by the programme have also participated in various state and national competitions and exhibitions such as the TUNZA Asia-Pacific Conference of the United Nations Environment Programme, Central Board of Secondary Education National Science Exhibition, National Children Science Congress (national and state levels), and the NGC National meet. Lessons Learned The important lessons learnt from the programme include the following: 1. Government-public-private partnership is essential in a large scale education programme and helps in creating ownership. India is a vast country with a large number of schools and interventions require large scale investments of money, time and manpower. Critical inputs include the support of ArcelorMittal for quality educational materials, capacity building and management costs. Costs of trainings, delivery of materials, monitoring and others have been shared by NGC, SSA, and civil society organizations. Trans-adaptation of resource materials by RCE Guwahati partners is another critical input. 2. A pilot to serve as model is also essential before making such investments. On the other hand, creating ownership at the grassroot level is important for the sustenance of the programme, which is possible only with government endorsement. Public participation is essential for school-community linkages and outreach programmes, and also for social monitoring of the project activities. 3. Use of local language provides better acceptance. Learning outcomes at the school level are faster if instruction is done in the mother tongue. Trans-adaptation of the programme’s information, education and communication (IEC) materials has been a critical input that facilitated faster learning. 4. Degree of behavior change in students depends on the quality of teacher orientation and materials provided. Quality IEC materials and Training of Trainers are equally important for proper implementation of any programme at the grassroots level. The support of ArcelorMittal and CEE’s experience in implementing ESD over two and half decades have been instrumental in this regard. 5. Selection of specific local issues allows people to quickly relate to the programme. Hence, the issues addressed by the programmes were all selected with local relevance. Around Tiger habitats, the programme focused on tiger conservation; around dolphin, on dolphin conservation; around hoolock gibbon habitat, on gibbon conservation; in urban areas, on waste management and energy issues. It drew attention of students when linkages between ENCOURAGING PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS AND COMMUNITIES FOR BIODIVERSITY 93
In Celebration of His Majesty the King of Thailand’s 84th Birthday Anniversary
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