It's not a choice between our environment and our economy; it's a choice between prosperity and decline

President Barack Obama (2009)

An education for sustainable development seeks to meet the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. Children today need a vision of development that encompasses populations, animal and plant species, ecosystems, natural resources and integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty, gender equality, human rights, education for all, health, human security, intercultural dialogue, etc.

The demand on education therefore is one of change. Where young people have an opportunity to explore options in which current systems can change to support sustainability and in which their own actions can contribute to a sustainable future.

The Millennium Schools, a part of the Educomp Educational Initiative aim at equipping their students with sustainability skills as a part of their mainstream education. These children possess an awareness and sensitivity which makes them more attuned to things around us along by learning 21^st century skills like collaboration and communication and critical thinking.

Mr Shankar Musafir, one of the trainers who has been working with the students of the schools on various projects has an interesting report to share.

These project while extremely interesting have also made the students aware of things around them. The report below is of three such projects which have already been completed with the children.

The Millennium School, Delhi, Noida: The Herb Detectives and Traditional Medicine Project: The students were provided with an opportunity to learn more about herbs by playing games on different kinds of herbs, learning both about their names and their uses. They also explored the various herbal products available around them to become familiar with their uses. To further enhance their learning, a meeting with a real traditional medicine practitioner was arranged and the students met a 'Hakimji' from the Department of Unani Medicine, Jamia Hamdard University.

Excited and enthusiastic about the medicinal and healing powers of herbs, the wonders of which are only now becoming obvious to the world, the children had a lot of questions to ask him.

An interactive session followed where the children not only learnt a lot from the Hakimji but also displayed their keenness to know further about this alternative form of medicine. The students invited the Hakimji to their school as a guest of honor for a function so that other students would also benefit from his knowledge and expertise on these ancient forms of healing.

Kabadiwala Project in The Millenium School, Amritsar: The Kabadiwala project was a unique opportunity for children to interact and learn from those who are marginalized in our every day lives. The 'kabadiwallas', that is people who collect old newspapers from all homes in India are never either noticed or recognized for their work of recycling and saving the environment. These people spend their lives in collecting newspapers, recycling plastics and waste like metals, glass etc doing great service to maintaining a balance in the ecosystem.

The children of the The Millenium School, Amritsar decided to go ahead and make a difference when inspired by their trainer, they interacted with Mr Haldar, a local 'kabadiwala'. With him, they retraced the path of recycling various waste materials like paper, metals etc. It was an experiential learning project for the students where they got to know not only about the recycling of paper but also had a chance to explore the lives of those involved in this profession-the 'kabadiwalas'

At level with the enthusiasm of the children, was the happiness of Mr. Halder the 'Kabadiwalla', who felt very proud to be given this attention. The students also invited him as the guest of honor for the presentation of their project in their school, giving him a chance to educate other students about his work.

Waste Auditing in The Millenium School, Jallandhar: The students of class 7th engaged in a waste audit of the school, which involved segregating and weighing the entire waste of the school. This was a tough project to adopt as it involved collecting the waste left behind by students of the school. It was very interesting that most of the boys of the class dropped out at the thought of touching the dustbins with the waste, eventually it was a brave group of girls and one boy, who actually carried out the audit. The waste was weighed using a spring balance.

The students initially aghast at the project found that the experience made them actually learn how much wastage there is in a school everyday. Not only that, they also understood how the school can help reduce use of plastics by simple things like asking children to carry food in paper bags instead of plastic or aluminum foil, which take hundreds of years more to recycle.

They put their ideas together in an attractive presentation which they also shared with the entire school and faculty.

Air Auditing Project, The Millenium School, Noida: Taking ahead their commitment towards climate change mitigation, students of class eighth carried out a commuter survey in the school, where they interviewed every student, teacher and administrative staff of the school about how they travel to school everyday – by bus, walking or some other way.

Their air audit also involved an audit of the buses of the school, finding out their mileages and passenger capacities and evaluating if they were fuel efficient. With all the information in hand then they were able to analyze their own responsibility towards the environment in as simple yet significant thing as commuting. It helped them understand first hand how they could individually work towards improving the environment around them.

Other MESDP Updates

• Three students from the Millennium team went for a village camp to Assam. It was part of a trip organized by Teen Murti Children's Resource Centre to make children familiar with the village economy of the North- Eastern region of India.
• Another group of students visited Stavanger in Norway to take part in a Children's Conference on Environment, where they presented the Kabadiwala project.