Environment Orientation to School Education (EOSE)

EOSE was a centrally sponsored scheme of the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The objective of the scheme was to facilitate and capacity build NGOs to develop locale specific programmes, material and capacity for environmental education activities in schools. CEE was the nodal agency for EOSE in Rajasthan and some other states. Ten projects were conducted by various agencies under this scheme in Rajasthan like conservation and regeneration of medicinal plants of the Alwar region involving school children and publication of booklet: Aravalli Parvatmala Ki Jadi-butiyan by Gramin Vikas Evam Paryavaran Sansthan, documentation of information about trees and shrubs of the Jamuva Ramgarh Sanctuary with children in Dausa and publication of booklet :Hamari Vrikhs Sampada by Gramin Vikas Seva sansthan, EE programme for rural children and youth along with publication of three booklets on Water, Trees and Medicinal Plants and a poster on water by Seva Mandir , Udaipur , using Phad on communicating the importance of oran gauchar(pastuer land) by Lok Kalyan Sansthan. Food plant awareness programme and environmentalizing curriculum transactions in schools were other two main projects carried out by CEE under EOSE in Rajasthan. Food plant awareness programme was implemented in a cluster of 24 schools in Bikaner district.

The purpose of the project was to create awareness among the school children about the importance of local food plants for health and well-being through collection of data in the Thar Desert area of Rajasthan and provide opportunities and technical help for increasing the production of local food plants for health and ecological benefits and thus helping their conservation. Environmentalizing curriculum transactions in schools project was carried along with State Institute of Education Research and Training (SIERT) and Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan (BSER). A teacher manual based on existing curriculum of std. 6 to 8 was developed for middle school based on the syllabus of NCERT and state curriculum of Rajasthan in Hindi. The teacher manual based on the NCERT syllabus is produced in English. These manuals were developed with the aim of helping teachers of Standards 6, 7, and 8 to strengthen the teaching of environmental concepts present in the curriculum, through providing related locale-specific data and information, and activity ideas to teach the textbook lessons in a more experimental way.

To provide a different kind of educational experience, Earthian winner school team were invited to be part of bio-cultural camp each year from 2016 to kindle the interest of participants towards the invisible bio-cultural aspects of the forests. Bio-cultural camps focused on learning about biodiversity and cultural importance of the area. Such camps were opportunity to stimulate joyful, enlightening insights and experiences for our children and youth.