Over 40 experts from the education, health, water, sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition sectors participated in the project, Reaching the Unreached, in which the team kicked off a series of workshops to develop an operational manual for implementing a comprehensive program for developing sustainable schools under the ‘Green schools initiative’ of the Central Province.
The program, which comprises development of practical training modules and video training material for the provincial education system is part of the European Union funded Reaching the Unreached Project, which when completed will be rolled out in all 1,467 provincial schools in the Central Province covering 29,000 teachers and 500,000 students.
Gamini Rajaratne, Secretary, Chief Ministry, Ministry of Education and Local Government of the Central Province said, “the Green School Concept is aimed at holistic development of children which would impact homes, schools, villages, towns, cities and eventually the society through the promotion of good values, ethics and practices to make responsible citizens endowed with wisdom.”
H A T D K Jayaratne, Principal Hemamali Girls’ School, Kandy – one of the six schools in the Central Province to pilot this program – said the Green School approach does not duplicate any on-going programs of the education system but help operationalise concepts in schools through practical activities such as landscaping, behaviour change training, tree planting, energy conservation, waste management and other programs along the themes of people, water, air, land, energy and waste.
This module will be made available in Sinhala, Tamil and English and absorbed into the provincial education system covering many action learning sessions aimed at improving competencies and promoting positive behaviours.
The “Reaching the Unreached Estates and Surrounding Communities on Equitable Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) for Improved Health and Nutrition Project” is funded by the European Union’s Integrated Rural Development Program and implemented in 52 estates and 105 surrounding rural villages and 81 provincial schools in the Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Badulla and Moneragala Districts. The project is implemented by Solidaridad Network Asia, Nucleus Foundation, and the Institute of Social Development.