Teaching for Tomorrow's World

By Simone Peinke and Remy Raitt

Wind dials made from recycled goods sit cramped on the book laden tables of Ms Rejoice Batyi’s office. Her elbow rests on a pile of dog-eared geography textbooks. “Sorry I am late,” she apologises “I have so much work to do and so little time.”

Ms Batyi is one of the two geography teachers at Nathaniel Nyaluza Public Secondary School. Despite the time constraints of her daily job, she managed to complete her honours degree in Environmental Education at Rhodes University last year. During her studies she conducted a survey which revealed how teachers struggle to integrate environmental education into their subject.

“There is no justice here, teachers need to be properly trained about the environment. They need to know how to include it in subjects like maths,” she says. “There is a lack of awareness and training, people still think it is the baby of geography.” Ms Batyi hopes to re-start the eco-club at her school, which wilted two years ago. The aim of the club is to promote environmental awareness and action. Food gardens and litter clean-ups will be the main features of this endeavour. “The success of the club depends on participation from all learners and teachers” she says.

Ms Batyi believes that environmental education is no longer a question of choice. This eco-warrior is armed with knowledge and a self confessed “passion” for the environment, artillery she hopes to pass on to her colleagues and learners.

The research she completed last year proved there is a general lack of public awareness, especially in the townships, about the desecration of our local surroundings. “Everyone should try in their own capacity to lessen the impact of the buzz words ’global warming’,” she says, “It’s imperative to know about the environment, we have to be aware and involved in conservation.”

Nathaniel Nyaluza was the proud recipient of a floating trophy for the cleanest school – until last year. Ms Batyi hopes to bring this award back, but learners will have to realise they are a part of nature. “We only have one planet,” she says, “it’s our only home and if we destroy it we will be extinct. Sustainable development has to stick in the minds of learners so that they do not exhaust resources. Today they are learners, tomorrow they will be mothers and fathers and grandfathers. What we teach them today will save our future.”