News

Engaging youth in Rwanda's mountains through education

20.01.2021

The Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS), a member of the Mountain Partnership, is building the capacities of students, parents and teachers in Rwanda to enhance climate change resilience in schools and in their surrounding communities. This is part of a four-year project under the Eco-Schools Programme, which ARCOS is implementing in Rwanda since January 2020 in collaboration with the Danish Outdoor Council and several partners in Rwanda, with funding from Civil Society in Development and the Civil Society Development Fund (CISU) of the Danish Government.

The Eco-Schools Programme's overall goal is to promote active citizenship and improved livelihoods through education for sustainable development by infusing environmental education, action-based learning and student-centred teaching methods into primary and secondary education. Eco-Schools follow a seven-step change process, which is a series of carefully engineered measures to help schools maximize the success of their EcoSchool's ambitions. The method involves a wide diversity of individuals from the school community, teachers, local leaders and other duty bearers, with students playing a primary role in the process.

The period of November to December 2020 was marked by a series of trainings involving students from established eco-committees, eco-school parliaments and environmental clubs as well as teachers and parents. The participants came from schools located in the higher mountains of Northwestern Rwanda within the Rutsiro and Rulindo districts, where 200 participants –80 percent of whom being students – are benefiting.

Through these training sessions, ARCOS is conducting a participatory environmental review and climate change vulnerability assessment of schools and their surrounding communities as well as undertaking actions needed to build schools' resilience to climate change.

The Eco-Schools Programme applies a methodology that is built on investigation, vision, action and change to disseminate knowledge within eco-schools. It is based on a participatory approach that requires the involvement of parents, students, teachers and communities in decision-making committees at school level where at least half of the members are pupils. In its first four years, the programme plans to engage 35 schools, the majority being in mountainous regions of Rwanda, the "country of a thousand hills." A target to involved 175 teachers and 17 500 parents and community members has ben set.

As said by Sir David Attenborough, "The young generation is the future of our planet. We must equip them with the information, insight and practical skills to understand the importance of biodiversity, both intrinsically and for the survival of humanity. Educators have a key role to play in preparing young people for the challenges that lie ahead. There can be no greater legacy than giving young people the tools they need to save our planet." Students must anticipate what will be the most needed solutions for addressing environmental issues and biodiversity conservation challenges; therefore, empowering young people of all genders with essential skills for sustainable development is of huge importance.

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News by Queen Noëlla Bwiza, Projects Support Officer, ARCOS

Photos by ARCOS