Study: Environmental education at schools is in poor shape

A few weeks ago, several school principals gathered excitedly at the Environment Ministry to receive their "green accreditation," attesting that their school is committed to educating its pupils to protect the environment. To win accreditation, a school must devote at least 30 hours to environmental studies, make intelligent use of resources including water and energy, and operate a program involving community-oriented activity. Green accreditation has been awarded so far to 90 schools and 25kindergartens. But while the phenomenon is growing, a new study claims that the level of pupils' knowledge and commitment to the environment are still in desperate need of improvement.

The findings by Maya Negev and Gonen Sagi, researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, will be reported on Monday at the Knesset, during an environmental-awareness day being held there.

In their study, entitled "Environmental Literacy in the Israeli School System," Negev and Sagi examined the knowledge, positions and conduct of 7,635 pupils in grades 6 through 12 at 182 schools.

"The study indicates an enormous gap between the declarations about the purpose and extent of environmental education, and its implementation," says Prof. Alon Tal of BGU, one of the people behind the study. "Anyone who thinks that environmental education is in good shape needs a reality check."

According to Tal, there are substantial gaps in knowledge among pupils concerning various environmental subjects, and they are not familiar with the most basic issues. The report's conclusions state that most local pupils have not been exposed to the subject in question in a productive way. There are hardly any up-to-date materials on ecological issues, and curricula rarely include a practical component like helping to improve the environment in the school vicinity. In questionnaires distributed to the pupils, many answered only half or less of the questions correctly.

The most significant finding in Tal's view is the difference between knowledge and commitment to environmentally helpful behavior. "For example, we found that at Arab schools that scored low on environmental knowledge, environmental behavior got the highest score. There were schools in economically strong areas where the level of knowledge was high, but commitment was low."

The study suggests considering additional avenues for changing pupils' behavior, including via the family and local authorities.

The researchers claim that even at schools taking part in special programs sponsored by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Environment Ministry, only some of the showed higher levels of environmental literacy and committed behavior, in comparison to other schools.

Tal says that the Education Ministry is aware that instilling knowledge of environmental issues is not enough, and it is planning to introduce new initiatives through which schools will adopt sites for preservation and improvement.