Green school is an education programme for schools which aims to support teachers and schools to inspire new generations about the local and global importance of trees and forests through an innovative combination of global learning and outdoor learning.
Green school vision is a world where young people appreciate, value and act to sustain the vital role of trees and forests in supporting life on Earth starting with the Usambara Mountains.
Green school objectives are to:
- Enable children to explore the role of trees and forests in environmental, economic, social and cultural terms
- Enable children to explore the causes of deforestation, and its impact on the environment, farming, climate change, and livelihoods
- Engage children as local guardians of trees (through tree planting and care projects)
- Engage children as global guardians of trees (through taking action against deforestation and irresponsible consumption of tree products)
- In the long term, Green school seeks to change consumer behavior in order to achieve a slow-down in the rate of deforestation and hence, an improvement in both the environment and in the lives of people who depend directly or indirectly on forests and trees.
What makes Green school distinctive is that it brings together the two educational strands of development education (global learning) and outdoor education, to enable children to become both (informed) Tree Explorers and (active) Tree Guardians.
Green School is about:
- Both the local and global importance of trees and forests
- Creating powerful learning experiences for children through:
- Practical immersion in woodlands and forests
- Sharing of learning between schools in Tanzania
- Real life stories about the role of trees and forests in livelihoods and cultures
- The use of trees and forest resources and the Tanzanian’s impact on global deforestation
Green school can help schools develop learners’ values in relation to social and environmental justice and their behavior as global citizens.
Concepts of interdependence and sustainable development are common to both global learning and outdoor education. There is growing recognition of both the importance of outdoor education for children’s development and the current lack of opportunity children are given to play and learn outdoors.