PANAJI
Goa is putting its school students at the centre of its climate action push, with high schools being encouraged to transform their campuses into “living laboratories for sustainability” where students will audit electricity use, water consumption, waste generation and green cover before designing and implementing solutions.
Under the Mission Net Zero Campus, students will not merely be asked to participate in awareness campaigns but they will be expected to identify actual sustainability problems in their schools, collect baseline information, devise solutions, implement feasible measures and then demonstrate what changed. The initiative is being taken up by the Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) in collaboration with the Directorate of Education.
“The programme’s emphasis on measuring real change rather than simply proposing “green” projects is among its key features. Schools have been told to first understand their existing situation and only then decide on interventions,” a senior official said, informing that a guidebook in this regard has been issued to the schools.
Students will form Green Task Forces of five to 10 members, with different students taking responsibility for energy, waste, water, greenery, data collection and communication. Their work will include checking whether lights and fans are switched off in empty classrooms, mapping waste streams, identifying leaking taps and assessing opportunities for rainwater harvesting and biodiversity improvement.
Importantly, the programme does not require schools to install expensive technologies or achieve complete Net Zero status during the programme. “Solar power is only one possible intervention, while behavioural and low-cost measures such as switch-off campaigns, waste segregation, plastic reduction, leak reporting and tree inventories are also considered valid actions,” official explained.
The evaluation will focus on the quality of the problem identified, feasibility, environmental impact, student ownership and evidence rather than simply the amount of money spent. “In effect, the programme seeks to make climate action a hands-on exercise rather than a textbook lesson, with students expected to discover what is going wrong in their own campuses, test solutions and produce evidence of the change they create,” official said.
Under the Mission, each school will form a Green Task Force and prepare a Net Zero Campus Plan. To encourage schools and students, the government has launched a competition with submissions due by November 8 and evaluation and awards scheduled for December.
The top three schools will receive Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively, with the prizes intended for implementing their proposed Net Zero plans. Participating students will also receive “Net Zero Champion” certificates.
