Issues

Starting young
© WWF-Malaysia

Nature conservation not a priority

Environmental degradation in Malaysia has become more acute in the last decade. Species extinction, contamination of rivers, pollution, destruction of terrestrial and marine habitats, and degradation of natural resources are common in Malaysia’s environmental landscape.

There is a sense of apathy among Malaysians towards their natural heritage, and very little care or consideration given on a daily basis to ensure that our natural world stays intact.

Justification

Sustainable development of a country needs to balance the physical, social and economic aspects of nation-building against the surrounding ecological and environmental needs.

A culture of Environmental Citizenship must be created to ensure Malaysians have an understanding of the environment beyond the school-based, co-curricular waste management projects, paper recycling or cleaning campaigns. Malaysian schoolchildren especially need an education that provides an understanding of man-made environmental problems, and more importantly the ability to actively tackle these problems.

A real need to focus more on biodiversity and conserving finite resources

The Formal Education System is essentially focused on academic achievement and national aspirations. As such, minimal effort has been placed on developing the:

• attitude to appreciate Malaysia’s rich biodiversity
• need for nature conservation
• sustainable use of the finite resources

as a vital aspect of nation building.

Although the current school curriculum in Malaysia has infused Environmental Education in various subjects through textbooks, the delivery system needs a lot of improvement. Schools and teachers are not well-equipped with relevant resource materials, adequate finances or proper training. In addition, they are poorly linked with government resource managers such as the Department of Fisheries, Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Department of Forestry to leverage on and tap expert advice, knowledge and skills to infuse environmental issues, values and ethics into the subjects they teach.

Recommendation

An EE Policy in the national education system will ensure that a number of positive things will happen by providing the mandate for better infrastructure and attention to be in place. These include:

• an increased level of appreciation on the environment among schoolchildren.
• teachers to be better equipped with the knowledge and skills to infuse environmental issues, values and ethics into the subjects they teach through training and capacity building.
• adequate and varied resource materials for effective infusion of EE during the teaching and learning process.
• measurements and evaluations in place to determine whether the EE programmes being conducted are effective and students are able to translate their knowledge into concrete actions that will help the environment.