Green flags for top performing schools

Schools that were part of the annual Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) Eco-schools programme and sucessfully implemented the environmental action project last year were recognised and awarded for their effort and commitment during an awards ceremony held at a venue in Polokwane last Thursday.
According to Eco-schools programme general manager Donovan Fullard, the project is based on a seven-step framework and linked to various themes such as energy, waste, water and climate change among others. He further said there are 86 schools in Limpopo that are part of the programme and reiterated that successful schools were honoured with awards ranging from bronze, silver and gold certificates, green flags, platinum awards, diamond, bronze and silver decades awards.
Fullard stressed that they were embarking on an exciting change and hoped that schools will enjoy the newly introduced themes such as eco-tourism, transport and school grounds. He added that the programme was about environmental learning and for schools to take action on different aspects.

Wessa Eco-schools Limpopo project manager, Judy van Schalkwyk indicated that the awards were for the year 2017 but only taking place in 2018 and urged schools representatives to use the gathering to network and make friends with other schools. She further said schools can use the projects they did for Eco-schools programmes to enter for any other competitions to increase their chances of winning.
The 2017 Baswa le Meetse poetry national competition winner, Phumzile Mokoena from Pogodi Maribulla Primary School left the crowd asking for more after residing a poem titled ‘Water is life, sanitation is dignity’.
Two local motivational speakers, Ruth Modisha and Trevor Mulaudzi, University of Limpopo lecturer, set the place alight with their inspirational talks. Modisha focused her address on dream work while Mulaudzi dwelled much on sustainable, hygiene, improvement, and technologies saying that the toilet system in schools has destroyed the education system and reiterated that the issue needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency to save learners’ lives.

Story, photos & video: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za