Understanding environment was never so easy. Come June and middle school students at certain schools will be taught environment using the several modules and activities, specially designed by the Centre for Environment and Education (CEE), which would be introduced from the new academic session by the State Education Department.

This being a first attempt, the manual is to be introduced in certain schools, indentified across the state as a pilot project. GCERT director Dr N L Pandit stated that schools across the state have been identified where this manual would be introduced. ‘‘Depending upon the response we get, the manual would be introduced for everybody,’’ he stated.

The manual, which will largely be divided in three sections—Human System, Natural System and Current issues—will have details about the present scenario, measures undertaken and other initiatives, which the students can take up pro-actively. Other issues like Pollution Under Control Certificate norms, industrial pollution, problems faced at the Golden Corridor, categories of industries with regard to pollution will also be touched. A recent directive of the Supreme Court also emphasises on the need of bringing about an awareness about pollution among students.

CEE is presently designing manuals for two other states and the Union Territories, apart from Gujarat. The other states are Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The project is part of the Environment Orientation through Schools of the Human Resource Development Department and CEE has been appointed by the department to design manuals for these five.

The manuals are being designed after co-ordination with the state education boards and are based on the curriculum, and aim to supplement the existing environment-related chapters.

‘‘The manuals, apart from activities based on the chapters and more details about a topic, will also have a section on current issues, statistics and related information,’’ stated Pramod Kumar Sharma, Project Officer, CEE (West Zone), who is working on the manual for Gujarat. While the manual for Madhya Pradesh is being designed by the Pune centre, the rest are being prepared by the city-based centre.

The manual for the state would be about 120-pages. Several modules and experiments have been added. The students will now be taught eco-system as a ‘web of life’ through balls of thread and cards. In this, a set of cards are distributed among the students and they form a web by passing the ball of thread to the ones who have cards which compliment theirs. ‘‘A boy having a card of tree will be attached to things like fruits, flowers, vegetation, birds, furniture, oxygen and other things, creating a web,’’ explained Sharma.

Other modules include calculating the percentage of potable water on earth, calculating amount of water wasted through leaking taps to bring about an awareness and explaining the need of preservation of forests through an apple.

The manuals are specifically designed for teachers and would help them to teach the concepts better. The manual would be common for all the three standards, ‘‘mainly because the set of teachers for all the three classes in government schools are common,’’ says Sharma, adding that the manuals are primarily meant for the government schools.

CEE will initially print 1,000 copies each in English and Gujarati of the manual, which will be in circulation by June. The manual would be distributed free among the government teachers while more copies—depending upon the demand—would be brought out for private schools and institutions, which will be charged. A workshop will be organised in July for the employees of the Gujarat Council for Education Research and Training (GCERT) and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), to use the manual, who will in-turn guide the teachers.