By Miyoko Ishigami (with photos)

TOKYO, Dec 4 (KUNA) -- A senior Kuwaiti government official said Thursday that Kuwait is considering establishing the Kuwait Center for Environmental Education and Research (KCEER), in what would be the first of its kind institution in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

"Through collaboration with our Japanese partner, the KCEER would serve as a space for researching and discussing environmental education as well as demonstrating environmental activities of children in Kuwait and Japan," Assistant Undersecretary for the Ministry of EducationMinistry of Education Maryam Al-Wateed told KUNA in an interview.

"It would also virtually play a role of an operations center for the Japanese-born environmental education program called 'Kids' ISO 14000', (for activities) such as providing training courses," Al-Wateed said, expressing hope the KCEER would be operational within two years.

She also confirmed that a full-fledged project for the Kuwaiti version of Kids' ISO 14000, geared toward 43,000 children annually, is on track to start in September 2009.

The ministry is currently in the process of planning a new curriculum incorporating the program's Introductory Level for the sixth grade students in all public intermediate schools under the name of "Life Skill and Environment."

According to Al-Wateed, the ministry is also planning to introduce advanced levels of the program.

Kids' ISO 14000 is specially designed for children to gain the ability of self-management to improve their environmental situation by themselves.

Kuwait launched a pilot program in May 2007 involving 12 intermediate schools and some 240 children.

To date, using Arabic-language workbooks, about 850 children in 24 schools have participated in this scheme. Also, 30 teachers have undergone a training course to become Eco-Kids Instructors, who play the roles of evaluators and advisors in the class rooms.

Noting that the students who were included in the course participated in Japanese Society's beach clean-up campaign last month, Al-Wateed praised Kuwait's children for producing excellent results from the Kids' ISO 14000 pilot program.

According to a sample of those who took part in the experimental scheme, through a two-week course, Kuwaiti children have succeeded in slashing the water and electricity consumption by 25 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

This proved that the program can contribute to the government's nationwide energy-saving campaign following a power shortage during the summer in recent years. The children have also managed to reduce waste from household by 20 percent.

With the purpose of increasing environmental awareness among children, the program was developed by Japan's non-governmental organization International Art and Technology Cooperation Organization (ArTech) in 2000.

Kuwait was the first Middle Eastern nation to have introduced Kids' ISO 14000.

Dr. Takaya Kawabe, the Director General of Artech, told KUNA that he hopes Kuwait will become a leader of the environmental education in the GCC and the entire Arab world.

Both Al-Wateed and Dr.Kawabe attended Tuesday's annual Kuwaiti-Japanese Businessmen's Committee in Tokyo, which has offered comprehensive support for the successful implementation of the program.

At the summit meeting here late July, His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and then Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda expressed appreciation for the achievements of the experimental introduction of Kids' 14000, and their willingness to expand and support this program in Kuwait in a consistent manner.

© Copyright Kuwait News Agency 2008.

 

Community Comments (0) - Comment on this article

The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect Zawya. Read our Comment Policy.

 

 

 

close x

Loading ...

 

close x

Report Abuse

Loading ...

 

 

close x

Loading ...