Environmental Education
Environmental education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions. Environmental education is meant to envision a set of organized curricular and co-curricular experiences designed to bring about the needed changes in knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills pertaining to environment, conservation and ecological balance an sustaining it. Education must be considered as solution for all environmental problems. It must be strengthened and supplemented by corresponding social and political action.
According to UNESCO
“Environmental education has been conceived as a process of recognizing the value and various conceptions of the environment with the prime aim of determining the skills and approaches necessary for understanding the relationship between man, his culture and the biophysical environment”.

Environmental Education in India
Inspite of its urgent need, Environment Education in India remains largely neglected. Only 25 out of 250 Universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) , Cochin University, Pondicherry University etc. offers (M.Sc.) in Environmental Sciences. In view of the environmental crisis all over the country, the Supreme Court of India issued in 1991 directive to the Central Government for introduction of common course on Environment at undergraduate level for various streams (Arts, Commerce and Science) in all colleges of the Universities. Bu the Universities were slow to respond. In absence of proper background of the subject and suitable textbooks, the teachers and students presented a scenario of confusion in all colleges. Prior orientation programmes are essential for developing motivation in the subject.
The Supreme Court again came into picture after a gap of 12 years : displeased with the non-compliance of their earlier order, the Supreme Court issued fresh directive in 2003 to all States and educational institutions to introduce the course on Environmental Studies at under-graduate and higher secondary levels from 2004-2005 session.
Objectives
i. Awareness
To help individuals and social groups acquire an awareness of and sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems.
ii. Knowledge
To help individual and social groups acquire basic understanding of the total environment, its associated problems and humanity’s critically responsible presence and role in it.
iii. Attitude
To help individuals and social groups acquire social values, strong feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation for actively participating in its protection and improvement.
iv. Skills
To help individuals and social groups acquire the skills for solving environmental problems.
v. Evaluation ability
To help individuals and social groups evaluate environmental measures and education programmes in terms of ecological, political , economic , social , aesthetic and educational factors.
vi. Participation
To help individuals and social groups develop a sense of responsibility and urgency regarding environmental problems to ensure appropriate action to solve those problems.

Need of Environmental Education and Public Awareness
The Stockholm conference (UN) on Human Environment (1972) initiated efforts to establish programmes of environmental education at all levels – primary, secondary and tertiary levels – of our educational system and also to motivate the general public in rural and urban areas about environmental awareness. This was followed by Belgrade (1975) and Tibilsi (1977) Conferences on Environmental Education. These laid stress on developing basic concepts of quality of life plus environmental knowledge, awareness, attitudes, skills and participation. In India the First International conference on Environmental Education was held at New Delhi in 1981 and the Second Conference also a New Delhi in 1985. These showed keen interest taken by India in Environmental Education. The Bhopal Disaster of 1984 sounded the wake-up call for India to take note of the crisis situation and realize the need of environmental awareness and education at all levels of the society.
It is the people’s education which holds the key to environmental management and good quality of life.
There are several laws enacted by the Government of India for conservation and prevention of pollution. But law cannot be implemented unless education makes society aware of the risks of living in deteriorating environment. The UN conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm form 5th – 6th June, 1972, which had the distinction of the Prime minister of India, late Indra Gandhi addressing it, was a major breakthrough in creating awareness . from then on the World Environment Day is observed every year on June 5 with a view of arousing the masses and bringing environmental issues to the forefront of thinking and planning. The controversy over the Silent Valley hydel project to save ‘one of the last vestiges’ of tropical rain forest, the ‘Chipko Movement’ in Himalayas (Almora Hills) and the Appiko movement (Karnataka) in India indicate people’s awareness.

 

Educational    Institutions  in  India

All India Council  for Technical Education – AICTE

Central  Board of Secondary  Education – CBSE

Indian  Council  of Social Science Research – ICSSR

Indian  Institute  of Advanced  Studies – IIAS

Indian  Council  of Philosophical  Research – ICPR

National  Council  of Rural Institutes – NCR

National  Council  of Educational  Research and Training – NCERT

National  Council for Teacher Education – NCTE

State Council  of Educational  Research and Training – SCERT

University  Grants Commission – UGC

National  Institute  of Educational  Planning  and Administration – NIEPA

List of Institutes, their location and specialized activity

Institute Name	Specialized activity	Location
Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration	Train civil service officers.	Mussoorie, Uttarakhand
Indian Institute of Forest Management	Provides education, research, training and consultancy in area of Forest, Environment and Natural Resources Management and allied sectors.	Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
National Inst. For Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development	A premier organization the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, engaged in training, consultancy, research etc. in order to promote entrepreneurship.	Noida
Film and Television Institute of India	One of the Asia’s premier film training schools	Pune
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)	Development and regulation of profession of Chartered Accountants	New Delhi
Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI)	Development and regulation of profession of Cost Accountants	Kolkata
International Institute of Ayurveda and Oriental Subjects	Engaged in study and research in Ayurveda and Oriental subjects	Kolkata
Institute of Manufacturing Resource Management of India	Development and knowledge enhancement for mfg. professionals	Mumbai
Institute of Psychological and Education Measurement (IPEM)	Engaged in objective examinations and modern personnel testing for educational guidance and selection	Allahabad
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade	Focuses on training for international business	New Delhi
Indian Institute of Material Management	Courses in materials management	Mumbai
Indian Institute of Science (IIS)	Institute for advanced scientific and technological research and education	Bangalore
Indian Statistical Institute	Devoted to the research, teaching and application of statics, natural sciences and social sciences.	Kolkata
Indra Gandhi Institute of Development Research	Research on developmental issues from a multi-disciplinary point of view.	Mumbai
Institute for Oriental Study	Promotion of Indian culture, history, civilization and Sanskrit.	Thane
Institute of Asian Studies	An institute for research scholars from all over Asia	Chennai
Institute of Company Secretaries of India	Regulate the profession of Company Secretory in India	New Delhi
Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies	A think tank on South Asian security issues	New Delhi
Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research	Engaged in advanced scientific research	Bangalore
Miri Piri Academy	Provides education in Khalsa tradition	Amritsar
National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS)	Basic research in frontier areas of biology and trains to PhD.	Bangalore
National Institute of Small Industry Extension Training	Promotion, development and modernization of SME sector	Hyderabad
National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI)	R&D support for dairy development programmes for the nation.	Karnal
National Institute of Oceanography	Research different aspects of coastal and open ocean environment	Goa
Physical Research Laboratory	Research Institution for theoretical physics and earth sciences.	Ahmedabad
Raman Research Institute	Works on basic science in areas of physics and astro physics	Bangalore
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SIP)	Basic research and  training in physical and  bio physical sciences	Kolkata
Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute (SPRERI)	Design and develop renewable energy and systems	Vidyanagar
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)	First school of social work in India	Mumbai
V.V. Giri National Labour Institute	Education, training and development in organized and unorganized labour	Noida
Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Admin.	Training for government and NGO employees	Pune
The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE)	Training, Research and Consultancy activities for small industries and entrepreneurship	Guwahati

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