Knowledge to Awareness to Action: Catch the young minds and orient them towards environment stewardship—Green Olympiad, India’s pioneer environment Olympiad for school students

Indian society is waking up to the call of ‘environmentalists’ urging citizens to take a more proactive approach for protection of nature and natural resources. Civilizations are intricately linked to the availability and quality of the life support systems available, and history has seen periodic washouts in the absence of a controlled and accountable lifestyles. For a sustainable and healthy way of living people need to be aware about the pros and cons of each of their actions on the environment. This awareness in turn needs to be created and built up amongst all levels of the society, to see a meaningful change in our surroundings. What better target group, than the young minds of our future citizenry? Children are the caretakers of the planet Earth and investing in them today ensures a more habitable planet. This is the vision in mind, with which TERI invests its time and resources on regular school environment education programs.   These programs weave around issues related to water, air, climate change, energy, etc; reaching out to school and college students and, indirectly,  to parents, teachers, and the society at large.

India’s First Environment Olympiad for Schools: Green Olympiad

 Environment Education initiatives at TERI facilitate sensitization on major environmental issues with a focus on learning through doing. Various formal, non-formal and informal approaches are employed for the same. A leading example of this is the project GREEN Olympiad and TERRAQUIZ which has been on the field since 1999. The direct beneficiaries of the project are schoolchildren, teachers, parents, and the general community in the identified project area. The primary focus is to achieve maximum participation from schools across the country and abroad.

What makes this environment Olympiad unique?

o The project stretches across all the states and union territories in India, and in select countries abroad. The year 2007 saw participation of nearly 80,000 students from 1400 schools from across the country and abroad. Schools from around 500 cities, towns and districts participated in the contest from India. These were clearly from many remote parts of the country.
o GREEN Olympiad has made a place for itself in the academic calendar of the schools. Children are aware of pressing environment issues, which need to be addressed. They relate their day-to-day activities to the changes that they see and experience around them. The information that they gain through participation in the Olympiad is clearly translated into environment improvement activities at the school level.
o The United Nations has declared the period 2005–2014 as the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Debates and discussions are on regarding integration of EE as a curriculum subject in the schools. In the midst of all these developments, this Environment Olympiad is slowly equipping the students with requisite knowledge on the subject of environment.
o A trend of repeat participation from schools is observed. This reflects its popularity and acceptance within the school network.
o The top seven schools from each zone and four top schools from the international zone, i.e thirty- two schools participate in the TERRAQUIZ. This quiz is telecast on DD National and is one of the longest consecutive quiz program for schools. The winners of this quiz show are crowned Environment Ambassadors for the year. These ambassadors carry the message of environmental awareness among fellow students. With this accomplishment this project has carved a niche for itself in the realm of environment globally in creating a unique environment educational platform.

The GREEN Olympiad is designed in an innovative manner so as to test the knowledge of students in the field of environment, and in turn create awareness about key issues touching our daily lives. This annual initiative over the years has proven to be an excellent tool to sensitise children on environmental problems, reaching out to geographical regions across the country where otherwise children get limited opportunities to participate in such an extensive exercise. Children from all parts of India and also from Indian schools abroad participate in this venture. The questions are so designed to test knowledge of students evolving from environment topics of daily concern such as water, energy, air, forest, biodiversity, climate and sustainable development. Winners receive awards and recognition for their performance. This includes both, individual prizes for the students and awards for the schools. Special merit certificates are also awarded by Ministry of Environment and Forests, who has been actively supporting the programme for the past several years.

IMPACT

•  The programme has had a great deal of impact on the minds of the children.
• Children take the question papers home, which carry a great deal of educative information. 
• The questions are designed in an innovative manner so as to not only test the knowledge of students but also educate and sensitise them in the process. 
• TERRAQUIZ is seen by students of all schools that participate in G O and also from other schools across the country.
• The viewer questions elicit response from the public exhibiting a keenness on the part of our viewers to know more about our environment. 
• Students associate GREEN Olympiad and TERRAQUIZ as a part of the annual calendar of all the participating schools.
• Children in the smaller towns where otherwise the exposure to environment related issues are less, find this an excellent learning process. Teachers and students use the content of question paper in their classroom learning.

Indicators of Sustainability

The project has a huge potential of social acceptance as it is a direct investment made towards development of an education foundation through environment friendly approaches. This project has made a place for itself in the academic calendar of the schools. A model is being created through this project to bring in awareness about environment issues at the community level through the involvement of youth. This model will be capable of replication in other geographical areas. The ultimate goal is to create an ‘Environment Conscious Informed National Network’.