The Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CERE), established in 2002 brings together research, teaching and social work fraternities, with a view to widen the scope and effectiveness of the environmental research and education across India.

In the year 2004, the Supreme Court of India made Environmental Education (EE) a mandatory subject in all schools of the country. Subsequently, Bombay based CERE undertook a short-term, national level project to document successful, working models of environmental education from schools across India that could be easily replicated by teaching institutions in every state of the country. The Trust was involved in supporting this project, through its Small Grant Programme.

The five main areas of environmental sustainability that were studied and best practices documented were for: (i) water conservation; (ii) waste management; (iii) energy conservation; (iv) greening; and (iv) community service. This project saw the CERE research team travel the length and breadth of the country from Mussoorie to Thiruvanthapuram and from Kutch to the Sunderbans in its quest to seek answers. CERE also got an opportunity to network with hundreds of schools, teaching and research institutions, government departments, non-governmental organisations, educationists, experts and concerned citizens working in the field of Environmental Education.

This has helped CERE build up a comprehensive state and city-wise Resource Directory and data base for the field of environmental sustainability and the Bombay Resource Directory has already been uploaded onto the CERE website. Other activity based learning resources and teaching aids, as per the NCERT prescribed syllabus, have also been posted on the website.

The best school that was documented was the Rishi Valley School in Chittoor, Tamil Nadu that provided an outstanding whole-schools model, where environmental education is not sidelined into one textbook subject, but is part of the guiding ethos, philosophy and actions of the entire school, including teachers, students and staff. All the five aspects of environmental sustainability are preached and practiced. Many other schools in India are striving to follow the same ideology, but none have perfected the model like the Rishi Valley School. CERE believes that this ‘whole schools’ approach needs to be emulated and replicated by schools throughout India, which will raise the level of ‘resource literacy’ of the country.

Delhi emerged as a leading city, in terms of the number of schools practicing some form of sustainability, whether it was waste management or rainwater harvesting or community service. The project also established that most schools heavily relied on NGOs to introduce and implement practices of environmental sustainability, since principals and teachers did not feel competent to undertake projects on their own. This method of partnering is good and must be taken ahead, but eventually schools should become self-reliant and the models should become self-sustainable.

The findings of this project have been posted on the CERE website for the benefit of all, the documented models are promoted by CERE at all its Teacher Training Courses and the data collected has been presented to policy-makers such as the Municipal Corporation of Bombay. CERE views this project as an ongoing endeavour and is permanently on a quest to seek at time-tested models of Environmental Education.

(The Trust wishes to thank CERE for their inputs within the article)