Green schools

By Sarah Chew and Yazreen Haron

WHICH would you rather do in environmental conservation — hear a talk about saving trees for a 100 minutes or plant a 100 trees in your school?

And yes, though planting a 100 trees may take more out of you, it certainly would go a long way in ensuring a healthier and greener tomorrow, as students in 22 schools found out.

These students were part of the Toyota Eco Rangers Programme, a partnership between UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd and Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam (Yawa), which kicked off last year with a Eco camp where they learnt how to care for trees and plant them in their respective schools.

This three-year programme involves workshops, concept paper presentation, tree planting, nurturing activities and networking with community and governmental bodies.

Noor Rezan (fifth from left) talking to Sri Aman principal Alainal Hasani Md Noor about the school’s herb garden that was cultivated under the programme.
“As we end the first year of the programame, a total of 755 indigenous trees have been planted in the 22 participating high schools within the Klang Valley, by the students who have successfully applied the knowledge acquired from the Eco Camp workshop”, said executive director of strategic marketing group of UMW Toyota Motor Aminar Rashid Salleh at the first-year award ceremony recently.

Yawa and Toyota have been conducting on-site visits to the participating schools to monitor the progress and provide advice and feedback.

He also added that students will be taught on how to do labelling and inventory in the second year.

They would also be encouraged to carry out nurturing activities such as composting, producing enzymes and recycling, and also networking with the community, and move towards greening their school’s environment.
Schools were presented with a RM500 grant and starter kit of weeding, pruning and measurement tools, a test kit and fertiliser recipes.

To encourage the students in their endeavours, each school is monitored and assessed every year, with awards presented to schools in various categories.

The top three winners received cash prizes ranging from between RM1,000 and RM3,000 for the first year. They were SMK(P) Sri Aman, SMK Putrajaya and SMK Setapak Indah, Kuala Lumpur.

The Best Tree Planting, Best Nurturing and Environmental Practises and Best Reporting awards were won by SMK Bangsar, SMK(P) Sri Aman and SMK SS17 Subang Jaya respectively, with a reward of RM1,000 for each school.

The students and teachers agreed that they had gained valuable lessons and experiences through the past year.

“I’ve learnt how to plant trees correctly, know their scientific names, how to dig ponds, plan the ‘softscape’ and the ‘hardscape’ and even prepare presentations,” said SMK Putrajaya Form Five student Nur Azreen Hamidi, 17.

She added that when she leaves school, she would still return as an alumni to finish off the programme.
“In conjunction with the programme, we also conducted other eco-friendly activities as well, such as recycling, producing bio enzymes and an eco car wash where we used a pail of water for a car, and a pail of soap for several cars”, commented Nik Roshina, a participating teacher of SMK Setapak Indah, Kuala Lumpur.

Education Ministry deputy director-general (General Education Operations) Datuk Noor Rezan Bapoo Hashim said the ministry hoped the environmentally-friendly culture would extend beyond school.
“In understanding the importance of trees, comes a sense of responsibility towards the environment, not only within the school community but at home too”, said Noor Rezan.

To bring out the “eco” mood, there were special performances by the choir and orchestra of SMK(P) Sri Aman .

The participants will also be invited to a Tree Planting event in November this year.

The second year Eco Camp will be held in March 2010 and the final awards presentation will be held in June 2011 to complete the three-year programme.