Is The Environmental Education Imparted By Schools Enough?

By Pallavi Dani:

EVS or Environmental Studies has been made compulsory in all schools to make aware the children about the importance of environment and ways to protect it. This has even been extended to colleges. But is it really making any significant difference in the lives of these innumerable kids who are going to shape the future of this country?

With the population burst in recent decades, the pressure on natural resources has increased manifold. Not just that, with increasing industrialization the level of population has skyrocketed in the past few years. In my city, where 20 years back we had huge open spaces and trees aplenty, today it has turned into a jam-packed market place with hardly any trees visible for long distances. It’s difficult to go outside without shielding your face with a cloth unless you want to get covered in dust from head to toe. I can hardly imagine the condition of those cities which are counted among the worst polluted areas in the country. The environment is changing faster than ever. With the number of vehicles on road rapidly growing every day the condition can only be expected to get worse, if corrective steps are not taken soon.

A group of people including students, teachers and residents, in Jammu and Kashmir set a perfect example for the rest of us when they gathered along the banks of a river and cleaned it. Instead of relying on the government to do the job for us, it’s we who have to come forward to save our fast depleting natural resources and make it available for the generations to come. If such values are not inculcated in students from an early age through various activities instead of applying rote-learning, EVS will end up being just another subject which has to be mugged up to score marks.

“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in the books, for they speak with the voice of God” – George Washington