Zero Waste at Schools Program is a Clean up Nepal initiative with a vision to educate students and teachers to responsibly manage waste and engage in sustainable practices through a creative, fun and relatable curriculum. The course was designed initially due to a lack of local and contextual IEC learning materials. In 2020, a remote learning system was introduced due to the Covid restriction.
Zero Waste at Schools toolkit steps out of the conventional textbook study; focuses on the “learning by doing” approach.” Each lesson is combined with a practical activity that helps students learn the lesson in fun, creative, and relatable ways. The five modules aim to understand and adopt sustainable approaches to waste management in schools. The five modules are spread into activities, learning lessons, quizzes, and outdoor activities within an academic year, incorporating students, teachers, staff, and parents. The models are:
Module 1: Introduction to waste and waste management.
Module 2: Understanding and segregating waste.
Module 3: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3 R’s).
Module 4: Composting.
Module 5: Impacts of waste burning.
This project is designed to address solid waste management problems in schools in Nepal and complement the schools’ existing curricula for grades 5, 6 and 7. An interactive digital platfrom exist for remote learning: www.education.cleanupnepal.org.np
Zero Waste at Schools was selected as one of the 19 innovative educational programs on waste management for youth and children by UN-HABITAT in 2020. We have reached 30 schools with more than 2500 students, 24 cleaning staff and 132 teachers. Recently, due to Covid, a remote digital learning system has been introduced, helping to reach more students and teachers.
For our future programs, we aim to conduct training with the teachers covering 100 schools in the same municipality (council) and develop new resources, both online and in-text book form, for the teachers.
Students/Teachers/Parents: Simply log into our system and start the course at www.education.cleanupnepal.org.np.
Curriculum board/policymakers/Mayors and Municipalities: Email: info@cleanupnepal.org.np/Amod.karmacharya@cleanupnepal.org.np or through Clean up Nepal's social media handles.
