Students actively involved in their school management and development; environmental education that is effortlessly integrated in the curriculum; sustainable development practices incorporated in the school's development plans; a school that is open to and interacts with the community. All this sounds like an educational dream... almost too idealistic. But it is a growing reality. The EkoSkola programme is achieving all this and more at a steady pace in our schools.
Started in 1994 as an EU-funded project involving four countries, the concept has spread around the world like wildfire, currently involving 17,203 schools from 37 countries. This means a staggering 4.5 million participating students.
Eco-Schools was launched in Malta by Nature Trust (Malta) in collaboration with the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment under the local label of EkoSkola. Starting off in 2002 with a set of six pilot schools, the number of participating schools has increased to 50 in just four scholastic years.
One of the major strong points of EkoSkola is that it is not an invasive programme that imposes activities and structures irrespective of the individual needs and conditions of schools. On the contrary, EkoSkola adapts itself to the particular characteristics of the school and fits comfortably in the normal day-to-day administrative duties thus helping the school to develop at its own pace. The only condition that the programme makes is that students have to be actively involved in decision making. In order to achieve this target the programme is structured in seven steps based on the EMAS/ISO 14001 scheme.
The seven steps of EkoSkola
The setting up of an EkoSkola Committee predominantly composed of students is the first step in the process. The committee represents the major interest groups of the school community and is the hub of all the EkoSkola activity in the school. The first task of the committee is the Environmental Audit during which students gather information about the school's environmental footprint; its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The data gathered during the audit provides the information needed by the committee to identify priorities and design an Action Plan aimed at improving the quality of life in the school.
As the action plan is being implemented, the committee is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the process and making sure that the targets of the action plan are shared by all through various activities aimed at informing and involving the whole school and the surrounding community. The knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for the achievement of the action plan targets are addressed by curriculum work and the principles inherent in the plan form the Eco-Code - a statement of what the school believes in and is committed to achieve.
Schools that manage to go through these steps and adhere to a set of quality criteria are awarded the Green Flag - a prestigious internationally recognised eco-label. The award can be renewed every two years on the basis of continued excellent performance.
Although all this might seem a tall order, schools that have tapped into the resourcefulness of their students have managed to achieve all these steps. In fact although the programme has been running for just four full scholastic years, three schools - St Joseph Blata l-Bajda, St Joseph Paola and San Benedittu Zurrieq Primary A - have managed to achieve Green Flag status.
One of the positive aspects of this award scheme is that it is criterion referenced rather than norm referenced. In other words, instead of pitting schools against each other giving rise to unhealthy competition, EkoSkola motivates a school to discover and make full use of its hidden potential. Each school in the EkoSkola programme sets its own developmental targets and deadlines that are suited to their timetables. It is the school itself that evaluates when it is ready to apply for the Green Flag, i.e. when it has reached the required standards. That is why EkoSkola is a completely voluntary programme and schools should not be forced into it.
Success and support
Run by Nature Trust, the EkoSkola programme has to contend with all the opportunities and limitations that an environmental NGO has to face. Among the opportunities available is the relative freedom from the bureaucratic structures of formal governmental organisation that the programme enjoys. This flexibility allows Nature Trust to adapt itself to the individual needs of the schools. Besides the support offered by Eco-Schools International, Nature Trust offers professional development sessions for school staff, information meetings for parents and local councillors, an electronic newsletter, an informative website and an efficient advisory centre that answers specific difficulties that individual schools might have. No wonder that EkoSkola's spread has been a steady one.
However, success comes at a price! The ever increasing number of schools is rapidly eating away at the limited resources of this NGO. Reaching the Prime Minister's target of 60 participating schools and the Minister of Education's even more ambitious dream of "seeing all schools becoming Eco-Schools" requires sustained support.
The Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment has been at the forefront in offering this support. Falling well within the ministry's target for environmental education, EkoSkola is a featured item in the ministry's budget allocations. Although EkoSkola has also attracted various sponsors (local councils and businesses) who support individual school activities, the two major sponsors of the programme are HSBC Bank and Wasteserv.
While financial back-up is necessary, Nature Trust is in dire straits for human resources. In order to maintain and improve on the support service it currently offers to schools, Nature Trust has, for these last two years, requested the secondment of teachers whose function would be that of assisting schools in the EkoSkola process. To date these requests have not been met. It is hard to understand how one of the few programmes that is tangibly having a positive impact on the quality of school life and is systematically implementing most of the National Curriculum principles is not given the priority it deserves. In the few years that the EkoSkola programme has been functioning it has given proof of its effectiveness in developing an improved quality of school life by fitting neatly within the individual school's development plan. Good results and achievements don't just happen; they need to be ensured through the committed involvement of all stakeholders involved particularly the educational authorities.
For more information about the programme and how to register, visit the programme's website www.ekoskolamalta.com or contact Dr Pace, the programme's national coordinator on paul.j.pace @um.edu.mt.