On March 23, the State Environmental Protection Administration kicked off an annual contest among school and universities students nationwide.

As the theme for this year's World Environment Day is the protection of fresh water and oceans, the contest will encourage students to put forward their views on water-related issues, either in the form of an essay or an invention.

Winners will be invited to take part in a one-week trip to Hong Kong in August for exchange programs, the administration announced.

Co-sponsored by the Environmental Campaign Committee in Hong Kong, the contest has been held each year since 1998.

It includes a written and oral quiz, public service advertising designs, and sculpture made from recycled items.

With hundreds of thousands of students taking part each year, the contest "promotes students' awareness of the environment while providing a stage for their creativity," said Jiao Zhiyan, director of the administration's education center.

For years, the government has been working hard to protect the environment and educate people, especially the young, about the importance of maintaining habitats.

"With environmental protection, the first thing is to ensure that people know about it," said Qu Geping, former chairman of the Environmental and Resources Protection Committee of the country's legislature.

"Environmental education must be carried out in all schools from kindergarten to university."

From toddlers to university

Actions have already been taken.

In kindergartens, it is not rare to see classrooms and playgrounds decorated in green like a garden, and with all kinds of animals.

The kids are taught to love nature by taking care of plants and watching wild life programs.

The teaching of environmental protection can begin with something as simple as discouraging children from discarding a banana peel.

The Ministry of Education has a guideline stipulating that first grade primary school students and second grade senior middle school students are required to attend at least four hours of environmental studies classes each academic year.

The goal, the guideline says, is to develop their awareness and behavior to care about and protect the environment. China's curricula must be changed so that environmental education is introduced to every course.

The ministry and the environmental administration have been awarding model schools across the country the title of "Green School" for the past five years.

The selection has greatly inspired the students and teachers' enthusiasm in participating in environmental protection.

There are more than 200 national "green" schools now and 3,000 to 4,000 provincial or city-level ones.

In higher education, the Ministry of Education has introduced a number of new environmental programs to universities, such as studying environmental science, ecology, environmental engineering, wild life and nature reserve management, and agricultural resources and environmental management.

The development has been significant in the past few years.

In 1996, there were only about 70 universities offering an environmental engineering bachelor's degree. Last year, the number grew to 218, accounting for 34 percent of all universities.

Besides establishing environment sciences departments, many universities, such as Peking University and Renmin University, opened colleges specifically catering to the pursuit.

The environmental courses are not limited to the special departments or colleges, but also open as electives for the students of other departments.

Bell Program

Some educators are going deeper when awareness and understanding about the environment or sustainable development have already been instilled.

"We cannot stand on empty environmental protection slogans, we must take practical steps that can really benefit our society," said Jia Feng, deputy director of the Center for Environmental Education and Communications at the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Inspired by a course named the Global Commercialization of Environmental Technology, which he attended at the University of Washington last year, Jia opened a similar program at Peking University's college of environmental sciences.

The course is sponsored by the BELL (business environment learning and leadership) program at the Washington-based World Resources Institute, which advocates the idea that protecting the environment is no longer a cost to business, but a fundamental profit driver for business.

Starting in February, Peking University's program called the Commercialization of Environmental Technologies and Policy Tools focuses its research on a number of fields that are "most suitable and promising in China," according to Jia.

Bio-diesel, wind power, sustainable transportation, eco-fertilizer, organic food, methane application and coal gasification are among the areas of study.

"We were so surprised that the new program was welcomed by so many students, not only from Peking University, but also many other universities," he said.

The program was planned to start with about 30 students, or 50 at most. But when more than 170 students applied, the class had to be enlarged to 80 plus.

The students were from business, public policy, law, physics and engineering schools, among other specialties.

"The various backgrounds of the students enable them to work out technological solutions that are applicable in the market," Jia said.

(China Daily March 29, 2004)