|
|
Site Map . Contact . Help . Home |
|
||
|
||
| Regional Programmes . Productions . Resources . About Us | ||
There is a widespread apathy amongst most inhabitants of Montego Bay in Jamaica when it comes to protecting the environment. Many people really just don't care what happens to it. A number of experts believe that this is because schools do not stress enough the importance of the environment. A few organizations have been trying to make an impact in the educational fields. One such Montego Bay-based organization is Environment Watch, set up 4 years ago to promote environmental awareness and practices in the Parish of St. James and its immediate environs. It tries to sustain and improve the environment for the betterment of mankind through education. One problem raised by the President of Environment Watch, Elizabeth Dobson, is the way the school curriculum treats the environment: "Students in High Schools do a lot of academic work on the marine environment, but it is not practiced. It seems too theoretical, and should be applied more in a practical way". Environmental Watch started with just 4 members and now has grown to a core of 30 members. It has a programme for High Schools, which includes competitions for clean schools and the establishment of junior clubs, started after, in December 1993, the Vice Principal of the Herbert Morrison Technical High School asked Environment Watch to set up a junior club at her school. That was done the following month. Junior clubs offer incentives for active members, such as a field trip to Black River at the end of the school year. In addition, students of "clean-form rooms" have won cash prizes and two teachers won a weekend trip to local hotels. After Herbert Morrison, similar programmes were established at Cornwall College and Mount Alvernia High School. The junior clubs really took off in a number of schools across the parish in succeeding years. Robert Gordon, a teacher at Cornwall, has 15 members in his club and he feels that students are beginning to draw correlations between the environment and the curriculum: "The information that they get in the club is closely related to parts of the school curriculum. Some students realize that they must get this benefit. In my club there are mostly six-formers, and a big portion of their biology syllabus covers the environment. These students gravitate towards a club like the Environment Watch club." He added that sometimes it is difficult to make the group work: "As a teacher you can identify persons who are inclined to serious work, and those who only want conversation. In order to support the group effort, one has to talk to students one-on-one. This usually gives a good response." Students have visited the existing garbage dump and discussed solutions for the problems that they saw. They also did an audit of the amount and kind of waste they generated individually and collectively. Further, they took part in beach clean-ups, environmental forums, environmental awareness surveys and even mounted a demonstration against the passage of nuclear waste through the Caribbean. Dobson is please with the way this programme has grown: "The collection at schools of recyclable materials, in particular plastics, has been going well. Plastic soda bottles collected from the schools and the community have been brought in successfully." The sewage plant at Bevan Avenue was also visited. Students saw an overloaded struggling mechanical plant in operation, the problems it had and the problems it was causing. Subsequently they visited the new Great River Treatment Plant and saw a state-of-the-art water treatment system and the efforts that go into purifying the water supply. According to Gordon, the most important aspects of the club are the practical applications of what students learn: "People are used to having others cleaning up after them. This attitude is brought along wherever one goes. Now when I find somebody littering, I require that person to collect plastic bottles for the day. This is not a punishment, but it supports our recycling programme, for which we do not always have the manpower." The challenges are still great and the obstacles are many. A small group of enlightened students have sought to educate their fellow students. Judy Lawrence, a student at Mount Alvernia, is aware of the challenges to her club: "We have to inform the girls about environmental problems and how to solve them." While the results of this environmental education work might not be immediately apparent, there are those who believe that Montego Bay will see its results sometime in the future. Gordon is one of those people: "It is not going to change today. It is like any other problem that has become institutionalized, it takes years, decades, lifetimes. Some of the persons involved will not be around to see the end of the work, however, they are laying the foundation and we will get there." In its programme to educate the high schools about the importance of the environment, Environment Watch has received support from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica and the Montego Bay Marine Park. The chairman of the Marine Park's Trust, Kirk Taylor, appreciates the work the organization has been doing. He plans to continue working very closely with Environment Watch to bring environmental education into the schools: "This is our major concern, because these Montegonians are going to help us to make marine protection work." [898 words] In collaboration with the Caribbean Environmental Reporters Network (CERN), Panos produces a weekly 10-minutes radio series: "Island Beat - News from the environmental frontline of the Caribbean". It documents community environmental themes, in particular highlighting community experiences in finding solutions to environmental problems, reported by journalists from across the Caribbean region. This current print feature has been derived from a radio programme which was produced in June 1997.
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
