EkoSkola Malta

39 schools receive the prestigious Green Flag Award

In a ceremony presided over by the President of Malta, H.E. George Vella a total of 39 schools received recognition for bringing a marked positive change in their school communities.

St Clare College, Sliema Primary School and St Dorothy’s Junior School, Sliema were awarded the prestigious international Green Flag Award for the first time. St Clare College, San Ġwann Primary School received the 8th consecutive Green Flag marking their 16 years of commitment towards sustainability. The ceremony was hosted at St Ignatius College Handaq Middle School.

20 years ago Nature Trust – FEE Malta embarked on a bold journey to empower young citizens to adopt an active role in environmental decision-making by rolling out the international Eco-School programme locally. From its humble beginnings in 2002 with 6 pilot schools moving on to establish itself as the key programme in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the islands with 84% of the  whole student population, on board. The schools who fly the internationally acclaimed Green flag can now boast that they have received international recognition for successfully embedding Education for Sustainable Development as outlined in the National Curriculum Framework.

Students investigate issues pertaining to these goals and take informed decisions to try and address them in the best way they can with the resources they have at the school level, at the community level and also at the national level. Only last week, EkoSkola student representatives met ERA officials and Hon. Minister Miriam Dalli – Minister for Environment, Energy and Enterprise whereby they presented a copy of the Children’s version of Malta’s National Strategy for 2050. They also presented a document with a selection of suggestions from over 675 recommendations that students participating in EkoSkola have presented to policy makers over the past years.

In line FEE’s strategy- GAIA 20:30 work in schools continues mostly but not only on climate change mitigation and adaptation, addressing environmental pollution and halting biodiversity. Work on UN’s Sustainable Development Goals continues unabated all fronts whilst students acquire more skills using tools such as NASA’s GLOBE programme together with the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) and the Learning About Forests (LEAF) programmes, which provide further opportunities for investigative learning.

Nature Trust FEE Malta is fully committed in providing further opportunities to our young citizens as it has done over the past 20 years. Today’s Green Flag ceremony is the launch of a series of other occasions that mark the 20^th Anniversary of the EkoSkola programme.