Classrooms will turn green soon if a proposal by the ministry of environment andforests (MEF) to introduce environmentallessons for students and professionals isapproved. MET has set up a committeeheaded by V H Easwaran, former directorof the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development, to devise formal environment education programmes.
T George Joseph, joint secretary inMEF and a committee member, points outthat as most aspects of planning andindustrial processes have environmentalimplications, they should be reorientedalong environmental lines. He alsostressed the need for trained manpowerin environmental economics, environmental accounting and auditing, environmental law and environmental management policy.
The panel will recommend a curriculum that will integrate environmentalconcerns in all walks of life. It willreview training in resource management,pollution control and environmental education in schools and universities.
Easwaran says, "It is important toimpart environmental training at the primary level and carry it through to theprofessional level, so that youngsters donot grow up with a narrow vision ofdevelopment, dismissing environment from their concerns."