New environmental project for schools

The Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC), a local NGO, supported by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), launched a US $28,000 (24,000 Euro) environmental education project, geared toward promoting environmental awareness among school students, a CAREC programme officer told IRIN on Monday. The project, called "Assistance to Environment Education Development in the Secondary School System in the Republic of Kazakhstan" was launched in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty. "Environmental awareness development should become a part of a comprehensive approach, starting from schools," an accompanying press statement said. To achieve its aim, special courses and modules will be organised to train teachers of chemistry, biology, geography and other subjects with environmental content, to promote awareness in this field. "Environmental issues are incorporated into biology, chemistry, geography. There is no "ecology" subject in Kazakhs schools", Tatiana Shakirova, CAREC's Environmental Education Programme Manager, told IRIN from Almaty. Shakirova added CAREC was also looking to develop a legislative framework for the introduction of ecology as a separate subject in Kazakh schools. The project is the product of resolutions adopted at a ministerial meeting on education and the environment in April 2003, which was held in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and a conference in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, attended by regional environment ministers in May 2003.