Teachers, pupils to key into waste management
By Edith Igbokwe
Following the initiative of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) in collaboration with Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) to incorporate waste management into primary school curriculum, the Executive Secretary (ES), Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Barr. Femi Ogunwusi, has said that both the teachers and the pupils in public schools would key into the programme.
He said the integration of the programme would enhance pupils’ knowledge of environmental health.
Ogunwusi stressed that the idea will give pupils the opportunity to learn and believe in the basic need for cleanliness and can even impact on their parents.
He informed that teachers have started undergoing training in the courses to be taught in schools.
“The teachers are being trained in the topic ‘Waste Education in the 21st Century’. The training is held at LASUBEB office in Maryland. Those teachers trained are expected to be the ones to teach the course in schools. They are also expected to encourage and form waste management clubs in schools to strengthen the drive to create awareness in waste disposal and methods of converting it to wealth.”
To mitigate indiscriminate waste disposal in the society, Ogunwusi stressed that it has become necessary to involve the teachers and pupils in the waste disposal campaign to every community, rural and urban to become soldiers in enforcement of waste disposal laws.
The chairman of LASUBEB, Hon. Wahab Alawiye King, during the inaugural training, agreed to work together with the LAWMA to instill environmental discipline in the pupils to make them conscious of their actions and inactions towards the environment.
Likewise, at the training ground, the LAWMA Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni, noted that to reshape the environmental consciousness of the younger generation is to catch them young through their teachers who are the best advocate and change agent whose impact, he said, cannot be shoved aside.
Odumboni explained that LAWMA is optimistic that incorporating waste management into primary school curriculum would not only be taught but put into practice for pupils, saying it would become a tradition over the time.
Other topics being taught include Solid Waste Management in the 21st Century; Waste Education in 21st Century; LAWMA Academy and Brief on Waste Management in Primary Schools.
