09 Feb 2016

A senior wildlife warden, Mr Bonalemong Kwambala, says it is important for people to learn and appreciate their environment.

Mr Kwambala was speaking at the recent distribution of books that were donated by a German author, Mr Matto Barfuss through the environmental education (EE) initiative.
He said the EE initiative was introduced into the curriculum to call on schools to develop environmental policies that guided them.

Mr Kwambala said the purpose of a school environmental policy was to raise the learner’s civic responsibility towards environmental awareness and to provide opportunities for learners to develop their competencies.

He said to strengthen the partnership that they had with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, they embarked on educational tours to protected areas, enhance outdoor learning and project activities such as litter picking and cleaning of water holes for free or minimal charges.

He further said his department also holds workshops and seminars for teachers all over the country and invite different stakeholders to come and share ideas on EE. In addition, he said they carry out school addresses on different wildlife topics and the objective of the school address is to encourage schools to form EE clubs.

For her part principal education officer in the North East Region, Ms Rose Ngele said they appreciate the books as they will help empower learners to know how to take care of their environment. She said Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) has managed to meet the government halfway in fulfilling its promise to have a well informed and educated nation as her ministry alone cannot afford to buy library books for all schools.

She said the DWNP would not regret donating the books to the region as the region continues to do well in Primary School Leaving Examinations, Junior Certificate and Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education. Ends