Fadekemi Ajakaiye
The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) through its Environmental Education Unit has just concluded a two weeks open free virtual summer school for children and teenagers ages 5yrs to 17 held from 11th to 20th August, 2020.
The purpose of the virtual school was to engage the children and teenagers during the lockdown in environmental education and prepare them as ambassadors for environmental conservation. NCF since its inception has been keen on environmental education for school children up to tertiary institutions level. This has necessitated its establishment of Conservation Clubs in schools and Bird Clubs in the communities across the nation.
Mrs. Bidemi Balogun, Head Environmental Education in sharing her experience opined that the school has revealed that learning is not restricted to physical classroom for children. This is the new normal everybody has to embrace going forward.
She said “The NCF Eco Summer School was set up in continuation of the conservation club activities, the idea came up as a result of the pandemic that has placed restriction on large gathering especially children. The 2 weeks have been fun with the children, their participation was highly encouraging and impressive. We had exciting activities with them. Some of the materials are available for them to go over to aid continual learning. We were able to touch on most aspects of the environment.”
In sharing his experience through telephone phone interview, a 12 years old boy, Ohigbai Aigbavboa says that “My experience in this summer school has been very fantastic, now I have become much better in arts & crafts, and I have learnt the importance of recycling, bird watching, butterfly and biodiversity. I want to say a big thank you to NCF Eco Summer School for the services they provided to us all”
Also while sharing her experience, a 10 years old Moduroti Akinola said that “The NCF Eco Summer School was a very interesting 2 weeks. I had a great time learning about the ecosystem. The most interesting part of it was the arts and craft. I also enjoyed the virtual trip. I look forward to being on the canopy walk soon. Thank you NCF for the great experience.”
Birdwatching, butterfly collection, biodiversity, green cooking and arts & craft and more were some of the aspects of the environment that the over 100 participants were exposed to.
Whatsapp and Google Classroom platforms were used to engage the participants.
