Environment education through a new medium

Despite a shortage of teachers to teach environmental education in schools, students can now gain knowledge on the subject with the help of VCD’s produced by the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU).

The VCD’s were produced following a Supreme Court order in 2003 which made the subject compulsory. Since then, science and geography teachers have been roped in to teach the subject.

“We were in need of an alternative teaching tool to fill the gap caused due to the lack of trained teachers. Developing the VCD by roping in experts from the field is a move in the right direction,” said Governor SM Krishna who released the VCDs at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.

Pro Vice-Chancellor AD Sawant, Anand Karve and Sunderlal Bahuguna have delivered lectures on their specialised topics for the VCD. “We have included rare visuals from NASA and other international environment organisations on nuclear waste disposal, destruction of ozone layer and more.

The CDs are designed specially for the second year degree students and are available in Marathi as well,” said Rajan Welukar, vice-chancellor, YCMOU.