March 28, 2024 18:11 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Delhi High Court rejects PIL seeking removal of Arvind Kejriwal as CM | MHA extends AFSPA in 3 districts of Arunachal Pradesh for 6 months | Encourage fair, transparent and legal process: US comments again on Kejriwal's arrest | India and China discuss border disengagement: EAM | Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discusses defence, trade while interacting with Malaysian leaders
WWF India launches digital resource portal for environment education

WWF India launches digital resource portal for environment education

India Blooms News Service | @indiablooms | 20 Sep 2017, 04:10 pm
New Delhi, Sep 20 (IBNS): WWF-India, in partnership with Capgemini, recently launched the One Planet Academy (OPA), an environment education portal for students and teachers in India.

Leveraging the affinity of today’s learners towards technology, according to WWF-India, the website focuses on various environmental themes and is a digital hub for schools, teachers and students that brings under its ambit a digital training and resource centre.

The OPA is designed to be a one-stop destination for educational information and interactive and engaging content on the environment and sustainable practices.

Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India said, “The One Planet Academy brings together two essential pillars of WWF-India- our approach to conservation and education. Looking at strengthening the capacity of schools and teachers, the website aims to create awareness on matters of the environment while connecting with young minds of today for contributory actions towards our planet.”

The website encourages schools to adopt green practices, offers project and activity ideas for the teachers, along with online training courses, and houses games, comics, interactive maps etc, for the students.

According to the Living Planet Report 2016, released by WWF, the global population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles has declined by 58 percent between 1970 and 2012.

The report also showed that India ranks fifth in terms of bio-capacity – an ecosystem’s capacity to produce resources such as food, fibre and renewable raw materials and absorb carbon dioxide and the country’s carbon footprint currently makes up 53 per cent of the country’s overall ecological footprint.

With indicators such as these, there is a need, probably more urgent now than before, to increase awareness about environment issues and inspire children to adopt sustainable lifestyles for a greener planet, said the organisation.

According to WWF-India, while environment education forms an integral part of the school syllabi, there exists a gap in the education system and the populace in the realm of education for the environment and sustainability.

The OPA, launched as a middle school programme in its first phase, will address these issues and make it a more hands-on and action oriented experience, inspiring children to think about issues around them and make responsible choices in their daily lives.

Anil Jalali, CHRO – India, Capgemini said, “It is an imperative for us to nurture young minds today to develop conscientious and socially responsible citizens of tomorrow. Education and Environment are key focus areas of our CSR roadmap and we believe that education is the most powerful enabler of change. Capgemini is pleased to facilitate the development of this virtual training and resource centre that promises to transform the way we teach and learn about our environment.”

The One Planet Academy is a resource portal for teachers and students, allowing them to access interesting and engaging educational material at the click of a button.

The teacher section will provide ideas for projects and activities along with publications related to educating young learners about the environment. The website will also provide short-term online training courses for teachers.

For students, the OPA is a fun virtual library, with informative e-books and stories, interactive games, films and competitions, which will help in deepening a sense of environmental consciousness.

WWF- India will also conduct workshops including nature trails and lectures and talks on environmental issues and sustainable practices by experts at WWF-India as a part of this initiative.

Image: WWF India/Twitter

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.