Dr. Chetan Singai
In India, our social values and attitudes have historically and culturally been in harmony with the environment. If one reads our literature, the writing of our sages, our religious texts, all of these reflect the recognition that all life on earth—human life included is intimately dependent on the quality of the environment. These also emphasize humans’ humbleness in this more extensive system and the need and responsibility to protect it. The Indian Constitution has captured much of these deep-rooted values while strengthening its citizens to protect the environment. The Constitution enjoins the ―State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country (Article 48-A, Constitution of India). It also makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and have ecological compassion for the living creatures‖ (Article 51A(g), Constitution of India).
Need for environmental education
The need and significance of Environmental Education in India, the paper provides the following SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Challenges) of Environmental Education in India.
Strengths
The Constitution and the Government’s commitment to the environment and the rich tradition of environmentally sound practices is an essential backdrop under which the countries Environmental Education strategy has been evolved. The Central Government and every state within India now have a Ministry of Environment. All education departments recognize Environmental Education as an essential part of education. The law courts have been four sympathetic to environmental issues, and the Supreme Court has passed a directive that all students must go through a course on the environment. The media must show free of cost a certain amount of programs to create environmental awareness (Supreme Court, Government of India, 2003). India has a vast network of NGOs that actively participate in creating awareness on development and environmental issues. Working on their own and with Governments, they are the backbone of the strategy to create greater environmental awareness, especially leading to environmental action.
Weaknesses
Illiteracy and a high dropout rate within the overall education system impede most educational programs. There is also insufficient recognition of Environmental Education or education itself as an essential tool for development. While the business community recognizes commercial communication in the form of advertising as essential, environmental education remains at a sub-critical level as far as funding is concerned (Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), 2005). The slower visible impact of Environmental Education on improvements in the environment is an inherent ―weakness.
Opportunities
The rapid growth of mass media and the coverage of radio and TV (ICTs) offer a significant opportunity for Environmental Education. In addition, the increasing availability of the Internet is also an emerging opportunity. With the media giving more coverage to environmental issues and highlighting environmental linkages with various calamities and degradation (for instance, the global movement for climate change discourse and policies), people are more interested in learning about the environment.
Challenges
With opportunity, the new and powerful media with their increasing dependence on advertising revenues have sparked off consumerism, which will impact people and their behavior. The advertising budgets are enormous compared to the total resources are spent on Environmental Education. In addition to this, Environmental Education may be considered an additional burden or unimportant among the youth, as it does not provide immediate employment benefits. Presently, there is a national debate about how to make Environmental Education widespread and effective at all levels of education, especially in/for higher education (CSE, 2008). The strategy under discussion envisages a four-pronged approach.
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005 contextualizes the need for a curriculum framework for Environmental Education. It appreciates the changing nature of education methods in line with contemporary social, ethical, and environmental issues. The curriculum framework for Environmental Education within the Indian education system has been under constant discussion/debate at the political and academic levels. The proposed arguments and concepts in this paper would be a vital input for further strengthening the cause of Environmental Education in India.
Through its ongoing reforms in education in the context of National Education Policy-2020, the Government has mandated the concern and interest in adopting environmental education curriculum. Connecting knowledge to life outside the school and enriching the curriculum by making it 17 more student-centered learning are two critical concerns of the National Curriculum Framework (2005). However, the concern is adapting to more student-centered learning mechanisms within this reform package.
Following the traditional teacher-centered teaching-learning strategy in India followed for ages, it is difficult to change the traditional education system. Thus, in this piece, I have endeavored to discuss an important topic of discussion in the present system of Indian education and, in addition to this study, has the scope to explore further the possibilities of supporting or improving the need or cause of curriculum reforms appreciating the case of Environmental Education in India.
Dr. Chetan Singai is an Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru
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