Green syllabus
Last year, the Supreme Court of India had made environmental studies a compulsory subject up to the senior secondary level in schools. A two-judge bench of Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice B P Singh appointed the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) the nodal agency to monitor how environmental education up to class XII would be implemented. In April 2004, the apex court approved a model syllabus NCERT came up with; for this, NCERT had consulted more than 500 institutions, state governments, the Central Pollution Control Board, individual experts and non-governmental organisations.
For students of class I to VIII, the subject will be part of the social science aspect of the syllabus. Students of classes IX to XII will study it as an additional subject. Separate marks will be awarded for this paper. The apex court has now asked NCERT to seek the opinion of the states on the model syllabus, before proceeding to implement it. NCERT is to submit states' opinion to the bench on July 23, 2004.
On another front, the University Grants Commission has made environment studies a compulsory subject for all under-graduate students.
Now that environment studies are poised to become part of students' lives, Ashish Shah of the Environment Education Unit, Centre for Science and Environment, saw fit to put some questions to eminent educators.
We asked the following questions:
• Is this shift in educational policy