Office in Baku helps raise environmental awareness in secondary schools with Green Pack

Learning about the environment will soon be an interactive multimedia experience for many students in Azerbaijan, thanks to the introduction of an environmental resource pack for schools known as the 'Green Pack'.

The Green Pack is an educational tool which aims at boosting the environmental knowledge of schoolteachers and students aged 7-14. It contains a teacher's handbook, a textbook for children, a DVD film collection, a CD-ROM and a role-playing dilemma game.

The Green Pack programme has already been successfully implemented by the Hungary-based Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe in numerous countries, including Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Russia and Slovakia, as well as the UK.

The project to produce an Azerbaijani version adapted to the country's environmental context began in 2004. With the support of the OSCE Office in Baku, it took about three years of hard work to create some 1,000 Green Packs for distribution in schools in Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit, Lankaran, Yevlakh, Kurdamir and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

Addressing core needs

"The OSCE is delighted to be associated with this exciting and innovative venture," says Torbjorn Bjorvatn, Economic and Environmental Officer at the Office in Baku. "It addresses the core needs of the population - helping to create a better environment through environmental education."

The development of the Azerbaijani Green Pack was a joint effort requiring co-operation with and assistance from a large group of leading national environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academic institutions and regulatory bodies. UK oil company BP also made a significant financial contribution to the project. Following the approval of the pack's content by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, it was officially included in the national school curriculum.

At the launch event on 19 November, the Deputy Head of the Office in Baku, Alexis Chahtahtinsky, noted that "the OSCE is committed to promote environmental awareness and education, which is a main precondition for preserving the environment and ensuring sustainable development. Our Organization puts a specific emphasis on the environment as a tool for co-operation and peace-building."

Extensive training

The project has also provided extensive training for teachers and methodologists from regional education departments on the ways to present the Green Pack material effectively to students. The training programme will "help Azerbaijani teachers deliver environmental knowledge to their students in more efficient ways," says the OSCE's Bjorvatn.

In early December, in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, Minister of Education Piri Abbasoglu Nagiyev offered strong support for the introduction of the Green Pack in Nakhchivan's schools, with training courses for teachers held in four different regions in four days under the close supervision of Minister Nagiyev.

In the town of Sharur near Turkey, with the snow-capped Mount Ararat rising majestically just across the border, School No 2 hosted a Green Pack training course on 6 December. Twenty-seven teachers from the surrounding areas accepted the invitation to become closer acquainted with the new Azerbaijani-language environmental teaching aids.

"We find this training very useful, and we will use the Green Pack materials in our classes. We can use it in a variety of subjects, such as geography, biology and information and communication technologies," explained one male participant from a small school in a rural community in western Nakhchivan.

Positive reception

Fikret Jaffarov, Director of the Baku-based NGO For Sustainable Development, says that he has been overwhelmed by the positive reception of the Green Pack in Azerbaijan.

"We enjoy the active support of both the Minister of Education and the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. Moreover, I am very satisfied with the training of trainers that we conducted in August and September.

"Providing specialized training on the Green Pack to 100 teachers and educationalists from across the country has greatly facilitated the programme's implementation at the local level in the regions," he says.

By the end of January 2008, 700 teachers will have been trained in the use of the Green Pack. With funding from the US Government, the Office in Baku plans to continue supporting the implementation of the Pack in Azerbaijan this year.