President George Abela recently presented students and teachers from 24 schools the international Eco-school Green Flag award, symbolising their commitment to environmental decision-making aimed at improving the quality of life at school and in their communities.

The ceremony was held at San Anton Palace, Attard, in the presence of 61 international eco-schools delegates from 45 countries. The delegates were in Malta for a three-day conference as part of celebrations marking Nature Trust’s 50th anniversary and the 10th anniversary since the eco-schools programme was introduced in Malta in 2002.

Known locally as Ekoskola, the programme is run by Nature Trust Malta as local representatives of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).

A total of 113 local schools and over 43,800 students take part in it. To date, 37 of these schools have managed to acquire the Green.

During the event, Nature Trust executive president Vincent Attard referred to the eco-audit carried out by the Ekoskola students at San Anton Palace earlier this year.

He said: “Ekoskola is all about empowering children and the President not only acknowledged this but has also taken the students’ suggestions to make the necessary alterations ”.

Lesley Jones from the FEE said the foundation was very impressed with the work Malta was doing in this programme. She was intrigued by the way the students conducted the eco-audit at the President’s palace and was pleasantly surprised that the President had given his patronage to the eco-schools programme in Malta.