…charges students to be Eco Friendly
By Precious Oham
The Adolescent Girls’ Initiative for Learning and Empowerment, AGILE, has inaugurated ECO Clubs in Public Secondary Schools in Ekiti State.
The inauguration which took place at Aramoko District Community Secondary School, Aramoko-Ekiti, had in attendance 10 Public Secondary Schools drawn from Ekiti Central Senatorial District.
In her welcome remark, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Dr Folake Olomojobi, represented by the Deputy Project Coordinator of AGILE, Mr. Toyin Osaleye, said the programme is aimed at ensuring that students promote sound environmental behaviour.
“Under this programme, we will be dealing with eco system. We want to plant trees in our schools to save our buildings. Our students will benefit a lot whereby you can make use of your waste products as ‘waste to wealth.
“We ought to make use of them to better our lives. We will be using them and recycle it to make money. When you get back to your school, you will tell others about it.”
On his own, the Technical Assistant on Environmental and Social Safeguards in AGILE, Mr. Adeyemi Bamisile said the objective of ECO Club is to create awareness among the students on environment protection.
He charged the students to preach the gospel of their relationship with the environment adding that the school is the only means they can reach out to parents and people in the society.
He said: “It is a forum through which students, teachers and volunteers can reach out to influence. engage their parents and neighborhood communities to promote sound environmental behavior.
“It will empower students to explore environmental concepts and actions beyond the confines of a syllabus or curriculum, grow kitchen gardens, maintain vermin-composting pits, construct water harvesting structures in school, practice paper recycling etc.
“This is to help the members becoming an environmental conscious and Eco friendly human by creating awareness of environmental protection, conservation, preservation and restoration.”
Highlights of the event were sensitization on climate change, objectives of ECO Clubs, group discussions and practical sessions on how to generate wealth from waste products.