Back to Index

Environment Africa's Policy on Environmental Management in Schools (POEMS)
Environment Africa
September 01, 2003

Background
In 2002, Environment Africa forged a partnership with the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture to work with 24 interested schools from three regions in Zimbabwe, on a pilot project to develop school-based environmental policies and management plans. A sensitisation workshop was held with Heads of schools and their District Education Officers to obtain their buy-in. A follow-up workshop was conducted with school-coordinators and their assistants, and an implementation framework was agreed upon. Each school then embarked upon a policy development process, according to their audited and prioritised needs. Environment Africa and the Ministry of Education provided back-up and extension.

Several schools embarked on excellent initiatives and projects, which included involving communities in their project work at school and replication in the community outreach; manufacture of corrugated roofing sheets from waste plastic; action research on industrial pollution of rivers; and adoption of nearby schools into the programme. The schools then compiled their experiences for presentation to the Ministry of Education as recommendations for mainstreaming Environmental Education (EE) into the curriculum. Experiences showed that the buy-in of school heads is essential for success; and that schools have a great potential and capacity as centres for innovation, action research, community development.

Introduction
Environment Africa has had a schools programme since 1994, which had focused on stimulating EE through enviro-talks, recycling and anti-litter programme (RAP), and a ‘You and Your Environment ‘ competition, now "Enviro-Action Schools competition". These activities generated a lot of interest among schools in Zimbabwe, as indicated by the increasing number of applications by schools and competition entries. In 2001, Environment Africa started a dialogue with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MoESC), with a proposal to work with pilot schools to develop school-based environmental policies and management plans, dubbed " POEMS". The MoESC accepted the proposal, with the blessings of the Curriculum Development Unit (CDU). POEMS was designed to use the environment as an infused cross-curricula theme for formal, non- formal and informal education. The process approach adopted included networking with all the major stakeholders in EE, and pooling resources, and co-ordinating approaches. Environment Africa also managed to attract a donor (CIDA), who in 2001 pledged to finance the pilot project scheduled to begin in 2002 with the new school year.

The target group and beneficiaries
The POEMS project was designed for implementation in primary (7-13 years) and secondary schools (14-19 years). Environment Africa and the MoESC jointly selected eight pilot schools in each of three regions in the country, namely Bindura in Mashonaland Central Province; Hwange North District and Victoria Falls urban in Matebeleland North Province, and three districts in Manicaland Province. Schools were selected on the premise of demonstrated potential for innovative growth and development, and were willing to embark on the pilot project on a voluntary basis.

The Goal and objectives of POEMS
The Goal of POEMS is to assist schools to develop effective and locally relevant school-based environmental policies and management plans, which are integrated in the overall curriculum.

To achieve this goal, the following objectives were articulated:

• To sensitise education officials and heads of schools,
• To equip school coordinators with knowledge and skills needed to implement their policies and action their plans,
• To impart technical skills to teachers and pupils, to be able to implement projects of their choice,
• To assist schools to document the process of their cases.

The Implementation of POEMS- a process approach
The POEMS project was designed to follow some logical steps, which were linked to ensure sustainability. The process is summarized in the table below:

Implications of Environmental Policies and Management Plans at Schools:
Environmental policies have the potential to

• provide possible frameworks for curriculum development,
• help organise EE activities,
• enable cooperative policy development (the school within a community),
• help manage a school’s resources wisely, and to make specific plans for actions,
• develop resources for the community and stimulate the community’s growth through resuscitating latent indigenous knowledge.

Achievements of POEMS
The implementation of POEMS achieved the followed successes:

1. Pilot schools were stimulated to interact with their holistic environment in a sustainable manner, as evidenced by project carried out, such as:

• Integrated land use designs and permaculture
• Use of waste plastic to make corrugated roofing sheets
• Water quality studies, which revealed preventable pollution.
• Research into the anti-malarial insecticidal properties of a smoldering indigenous herb.
• Monitoring resource use, e.g. Water consumption, and using the results for teaching mathematics and languages. Some of these projects were entered in the national Enviro-Action Schools competitions, where they won top prizes.
• Collecting Indigenous Knowledge and working with the community to revive it for development

2. Schools developed good documentation, which became integrated into the formal school system. These records include plan books, diaries of activities carried out, visitors’ books for comments and recommendations, and developments in the audit areas. The idea was to collect knowledge, skills, constructive criticism, and encouragement in a transparent manner, and also lobby and advocate for the environment.

3. Some pilot schools have adopted schools in their clusters to participate in the POEMS project. Other schools have approached E.A. with requests to join POEMS after finding out the benefits of POEMS in the pilot schools.

Some challenges faced
SWOT analyses carried out at the review meetings revealed some weaknesses and opportunities, which either stalled the progress or were exploited to accelerate progress:

1. A few school heads and coordinators either transferred from or left their schools for greener pastures soon after the sensitization workshops, thus creating a vacuum.
2. Heads of some schools were not fully supportive of the project despite the enthusiasm of the teachers and the children, which reduced stakeholder participation and impact.
3. The lack of E.E. policy makes E.E. optional in schools. However, an opportunity window exists whereby a National EE policy Development process is at a very advanced stage and is ready for incorporation into framework of the newly passed Environmental Management Act².

Conclusion and recommendations
The implementation of POEMS was a highly beneficial process for schools and is continuing unabated beyond the pilot phase, even with minimal assistance from Environment Africa. It has become an almost self-propelling process. The following is a list of lessons learnt:

1. The buy-in of the Education officials and heads of schools is crucial. Lack of the head’s support can derail the project.
2. It is important to start with willing schools, which have demonstrated potential.
3. Never impose ideas, programmes or projects. A truly participatory process will instill ownership.
4. It is important to highlight the integration of E.E. into the present curriculum to avoid overloading an already overloaded teacher and curriculum.
5. School-based environmental policies and management plans have great potential to lobby national E.E. policy development.
6. POEMS will have a greater chance of success if there is a wider stakeholder involvement, including all teachers, pupils, parents, NGOs and Government technical extension services.

References

1. Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture, Nziramasanga Commission of Enquiry into Education Report, 1999.
2. Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Zimbabwe Environmental Management Act, 2003.
3. Draft, National EE Policy for Zimbabwe.

Visit the Environment Africa fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP