Eco Schools Waste Management Programme
The Eco Schools programme of the Foundation for Environment Education (FEE) is being offered in India since 2014-15 by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) to students from the primary school level, for classes 1-5 (6-11 years old). Looking at the demand of the programme for introducing it to the middle school level, the Eco schools programme is being introduced in India at pilot level to students in the middle school i.e. class 6 to 8, beginning with the core theme of 'Waste Management'. The Eco schools Waste Management Programme (EcoWaM) was launched in India in April 2020 beginning with the core theme of Waste Management. The aim of the initiative is to involve middle school students across the country to create leaders, having the awareness, knowledge, commitment and potential to meet the challenges of waste management in their spheres of influence.
The EcoWaM is a novel initiative of CEE (Centre for Environment Education) with Bestseller Foundation, FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education). The EcoWaM follows behavior change education pedagogy where the students go through the process of Explore, Discover, Think, Act and Share. Under the core theme of 'Waste', it focuses on five sub themes namely Waste and Nature, Waste - A Problem, Waste and Sustainability, Waste Management, Waste and Handprint. A teacher's module has been developed as a resource guide for school teachers to help them in planning and implementing seven steps methodology for becoming a 'Waste Wise Eco Schools'. Looking at Covid 19 pandemic situation, the programme has been adopted to be conducted by schools through online mode. Online teachers training are being planned under the programme where teachers will be guided to implement seven steps methodology with a team of students at home with the help of their parents.
