Minister Kumar attended the MOU signing between Jai Narayan College, Recyclers Fiji Limited, and Swire Shipping for the Recycling on the Go initiative, on Global Recycling Day, last Friday (18/03/22).
This initiative was student-led and will create young recycling advocates whose task will be to positively influence behaviour change and attitudes towards recycling.
The Ministry of Education, Heritage, and Arts plays its part in fostering good practices and behaviour in students to create and maintain a better environment for all of us to live in.
We offer formal teaching in this area through the primary schools. Years 5 to 8 have subjects that make specific reference to climate change and its impact, waste management with respect to reuse, recycling and reduction, and care for the environment.
The coverage deepens and gets more focused in the secondary school curriculum, specifically for Year 9 – Basic Science and Years 12 and 13 – Chemistry.
Apart from these, there are school rules and standard operating procedures for schools to manage waste.
Students are rostered for rubbish bin duties, picking up rubbish in the school compound, having 3 rubbish bins in the classroom to separate rubbish and organising clean-up campaigns, and many other creative initiatives that encourage recycling.
In 2019, selected schools took part in the Health Promoting School programme with the support of the World Health Organisation, which had waste management and care for environment components.
By participating in this programme, 2 of our schools (Vunimono Sanatan Dharam Primary School from Nausori and Meiganiyah Muslim Primary from Nadi) received a gold level achievement.
The Ministry of Education continues to explore means to inculcate good behaviour in students and the most recent method is the development of the Moral and Civic Education Curriculum, which will be rolled out in the new academic year with a quest to mould students to become better citizens and take good care of their environment.
The Minister also encouraged other schools to become involved with the initiative and make a difference in their communities by creating a better environment for all.