When playing in the canals during school hours is OK
Students to adopt canals, study them for lessons on environment
By Dominic Nathan
SECONDARY school and junior college students may fine themselves "studying" in canals near their schools for a hands-on lesson on the environment.
They may be asked to adopt a stretch of canal near their schools and monitor the water quality and aquatic life there.
The programme Is one of several that the Environment Ministry is planning to spread the green message to students.
No details are available ye~ as the ministry Is still studying the programme’s feasibility, but several principals and students welcomed the idea.
,Mrs Sia Heng Yee, principal, of First Toa Payoh Secondary, said that environmental clubs in schools could take up the project and students could be encouraged to find out about keeping the canal clean and green.
"This may be a better way of sustaining interest rather than rotating It among the 40 or so classes throughout the year."
if teen-year-old David Gan from Commonwealth Secondary said: "It will be more interesting than just c4ning up the beach or Canal, if we can get to carry out some experiments to see whether the water is polluted or not."
The scheme to adopt a stretch of canal is a follow-up to the ministry’s successful Adopt a Beach and Park programme.
Nineteen schools, such as St Hilda’s Primary and Bedok South, are now involved in this programme, in which they each take care of a one-kilometer stretch of beach along the East Coast and Changi, for example.
An ENV spokesman said that many schools had expressed interest in joining the beach programme.
However, because of the limited number of beaches that are safe enough for pupils to clean, ENV has not been able to accept more than 19 schools.
To help spread the green message to more students, ENV will also be:
Extending the Clean rivers Education Programme to Primary 5 students next year. At present the 3½-hour programme is only for Primary 6 students. It includes a 15-minute slide show and field trips to explain the massive national project conducted to clean the Singapore, Kallang and Rochor rivers and the Pelton and Whampoa canals.
Conducting workshops for teachers on environmental education with the help of local experts and organizations. The first, and introduction to plants in the nature reserves, will be held on June 21.
Publishing resource material for schools’ environmental clubs. The material, covering recycling, nature appreciation and pollution, will help teachers to plan and organize activities for club members.
At present environmental education in schools is taught formally in science and geography lessons and informally through environmental clubs and extra-curricular activities.
Every school also has a teacher who acm as au environmental education adviser. ENV’s resource materials and activities for schools are made available through them.
ENV ‘green’ programmes
• Adopt a Beach and Park Programme:
Nineteen schools are now involved. They each take care of a 1 km stretch of beach.
• Clean Rivers Education Programme:
The ENV will extend this to Primary 5 students next year. It includes a slide show and field trips.
• Workshops:
Sessions on environmental education will be conducted for teachers.
• Resource materials:
Such materials will be published for schools’ environmental clubs.
‘This may be a better way of sustaining interest rather than rotating it among the 40 or so classes throughout the year.’
— Mrs Sia Heng Yee, principal of First Toa Payoh Secondary, suggesting that environmental clubs could take up the project and students could be encouraged to find out about keeping acanal ctean and green.
‘It will be more interesting than just cleaning up the beach or canal if we can get to carry out some experiments to see whether the water is polluted or not.’
— David Gan, a 15-year-old student from Commonwealth Secondary School, on the proposed ENV programme.
Source : The Straits Times 14th May 1995
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