KUCHING: Environmental education is one of the approaches of the government to manage the environment and education towards preserving and protecting the environment required awareness, knowledge, understanding, and change of attitude as well as active participation of all members of society, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Haji Awang Tengah Ali Hasan stressed. He pointed out it must start with the younger generation mainly those who are still in school and even if possible right from the beginning when they enter preschool.
“And we want it to be our culture and we want this to be our way of life to preserve good quality environment. And it must start from school,” Tengah said in his speech when representing the Chief Minister at the Presentation of Prizes to winners of the 8th Edition of Environmental-Friendly School Award (Anugerah Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar or better known as Anugerah SERASI) at Riverside Majestic Hotel here yesterday.
“There are voices that say environment education should not be a subject in school. To me this is not a positive attitude. We want awareness of and love for the environment to start from an early stage. And it should be made as a way of life.
“Therefore, school is the best venue for the society to inculcate noble values such as the love and the treasure for our mother nature,especially our priceless environment. We should be responsible to take care of our environment and this is the responsible of all our society at large,” he said, adding that the utilisation land areas must be properly managed so as not to create environmental problems like land eroison, landslide, flood that are happening now like what is happening in Penang.
“We don’t want to have this deterioration in terms of our air, water quality which are very important in our life,” he said, adding that the conservation and preservation of these environment that should be treasured by all,” he said, adding that it cannot rely on the governmental effort and it has to be our joint responsibility and we must start right from the beginning,” he said.
Tengah, who is also Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources II, and Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development stressed it was important to create awareness of our roles and responsibilities that together we must take care of the environment. Tengah was thankful to Shell for sponsoring the implementation of the environmental awareness programme all along and also the 8th Edition of the SERASI Award.
But the public, he stressed must develop positive mindsets on healthy and safe environment. Efforts by any government department or agency or corporate body will not yield any benefit if the society at large does not make any effort in helping to make the environment clean, green and healthy. In this respect, he hoped Shell next year will increase the number of awards – one of it is the Best Student Leader in Environmental Activities and the second category is Best Innovative Project Environmental Preservation.
Meanwhile, Tom Wong, the General Manager of Shell MDS in his speech said besides effective policy, cultural change is essential to drive a deeper respect, love, and care for the environment and this challenge is too great for one company, one sector, or even one school to resolve. He said SERASI programme had proven to be one of the more successful public and private collaborations, anchored on conservation and sustainability.
He said Shell was privilaged to run this programme in collaboration with the State government and the Natural Resources Environmental Board. SERASI programme is supported by many other government agencies, departments and ministries such as Ministry of Urban Development and Natural Resources, Department of Education, Environment, Forestry, Irrigation and Drainage, Health and others.
