„Not all children have their own small country house in the midst of nature, where one could get to know nature according to grandmother’s-grandfather’s teachings. The environmental education programmes for schools and kindergartens are meant to fill exactly this gap so that Estonian nature would be own and well-known also to purely town children,“ the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus commented on the directions of environmental education development. “For schools and kindergartens, there are currently 270 environmental programmes; we wish to increase this number to 340”. The Ministry of the Environment together with the institutions of the area of government contributes to the increase of environmental awareness among Estonian residents with the aim to guarantee the next generations an equal or better life environment than we possess now. The Environmental Board, RMK and the Museum of Natural History cooperate with kindergartens and schools in order to integrate environment and sustainable development-related topics into the entire study process. In addition to study programme-related environmental programmes, several non-school activities are organized, which connect being in nature with new knowledge on nature. Here belong, for instance, gatherings for working offered by several nature centres, nature conservation camps, exhibitions, trips to nature, family days etc. Last year, over 100,000 nature-interested people participated in such events organized by the Environmental Board, RMK and the Museum of Natural History. Several other organizations are involved in providing informal environmental education; in accordance with the regulation of the Minister of the Environment, all schools, free sector representatives as well as state and local government institutions have a possibility to participate in environmental education-oriented activities via foundation EIC Environmental Programme’s (sub)programme of environmental awareness. In the year 2011, 116 projects directed to children and adolescents were financed with the programme’s means, totalling 1,873,973 euros. |
