Regional News of Thursday, 11 March 2004

Source: GNA

Include Environmental Health in school curriculum

Kumasi, March.11, GNA- Dr Bernard Walter Lawson, Head of the Department of Biological Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has called for inclusion of environmental health in school curricula at all levels of education.

He has also called for the formation of environmental health clubs to be formed in schools and colleges adding that such through such clubs teachers could effect changes in children's attitude and behaviour towards the environment.

Dr Lawson was speaking at an environmental Regeneration Symposium, organised by Youth For Environmental Education and Co-operation (YEDEC) and The British Ecological Society (BES) for Teacher Training students of the Wesley College in Kumasi on Thursday.

He indicated that the underlying factors of the environmental degradation could be attributed to ignorance, illiteracy, and poverty. Mr Ebenezer Djaney Djagbletey, Deputy Ashanti Regional Forestry Manager observed that education was an instrument of development and also helps to inculcate more values into people.

He said the Forestry Commission could assist teachers and students in their quest to regenerate the environment in technical training. Mr Daniel Benefor and Mr Amo Agyemang, both programme officers at the Environmental Protection Agency in Kumasi called on people to desist from acts that could degrade the environment.

Ms. Margaret Crowe, a Biological teacher in the United Kingdom and a Representative for the British Ecological Society in Ghana hoped the symposium would result in a real exchange of ideas on environmental education.

Mr Badu-Fordjour Anyan, Principal of Wesley College who presided warned people who dump refuse around the College's compound to stop or face the full rigours of the law.