The ELRC is host to the Eco-Schools Makana node, consisting of between 7 -15 schools from the Makana area.

Schools in the Makana area have engaged in a number of ongoing environmental projects over the years, including recycling projects, green business projects, nutrition and medicinal school gardens, water and sanitation projects and many more.

Teachers in the node meet once a month to engage in a special series of eco-schools workshops, designed to support the environmental projects teachers are working on, and introduce them to new environmental knowledge and project ideas. Throughout the rest of the year, they select special school-related projects to work on with their learners. Our learners include pre-school through high school learners, as well as learners with disabilities.

The node is also supported by a large number of Makana organisations, who contribute to the school projects in various ways, on a school to school basis.

About Eco-Schools

The Eco-Schools programme is an international programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that was developed to support environmental learning in the classroom. The programme is active in 51 countries around the world and has been implemented in South Africa since 2003 by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA),who is the coordinating partner in South Africa. The programme is aimed at supporting environmental learning within the school curriculum, and action-taking around environmental sustainability in schools and their surrounding communities.

Since 2003 more than 10 229 schools across all nine provinces have participated on the WESSA Eco-Schools programme, of which over 6 000 have sustained their environmental projects for between 3 and 12 years. The national programme involves more than 500 000 learners and 40 000 teachers. WESSA Eco-Schools accredits schools that make a commitment to continuously improve their school’s environmental performance through awarding an international eco-schools symbol of achievement, represented by an Eco-Schools flag.

For more information about the Makana Eco-Schools node, please contact Priya Vallabh (p.vallabh@ru.ac.za) or Gladys Tyatya (g.tyatya@ru.ac.za).

Last Modified: Thu, 19 May 2016 21:47:27 SAST