Ann. Rep. Env. Edu. MUE. Vol.5 No.2, 2003

The Development of Environmental
Education of Elementary School andJunior High Schools in China
Zongmin Wang*
This year is the thirtieth anniversary between China and Japan in their normalization of diplomatic
relations. In the days of commemorating this important historical event, China and Japan’s specialists in
education got together and talked about the environmental matters of interest to both sides. This is of great
importance.
We all hope that the 21-century will be a new century that can keep peace in the world, protect theenvironment, and preserve men on a regular developed way. As China and Japan are very close neighbors,
who are just separated by only a narrow strait of water, in order to make this ideal come true, I think these
two nations must keep friendly relations.
From the point of view of environmental ecology and geography, as it were, China and Japan are an
environmental community that is difficult to separate. Therefore, it’s extremely important for people inthese two countries to use for reference and environmental education. Now we’re facing the crisis of water
resources, decrease of forest area, desertification of land, extinction of species, acid rain, greenhouse effect,ozone layer depletion, life garbage, air pollution etc. If we don’t pay close attention to environmental
education, don’t protect the environment and bring it under control, the earth will gradually lose the ability
to offer human being’s life. The point of environmental issue is education. Education is expected to be put
into operation from kindergarten, elementary school and junior school. Next, I’m going to do some brief
introduction about the problems of environmental education in China’s elementary school and junior school.

1. Environmental Education’s Rise in Elementary School and Junior High School
Since China carried out reforms and an open policy, in the course of economic construction anddevelopment of society, we’re always confronted with the problem of two relations. One is the relation between
environment and development. Choosing the way “Construction ~ Environment Destruction~ Administer
again”, or choose the way “At the Same Time”, which means doing the construction while protecting theenvironment and doing the development. Most people approve the way, which goes together with environmentand construction and also coordinates growth. The second is the relation between human beings and nature.
Choosing antagonism and destruction, or making a harmonious atmosphere? Instructive experiences tell us
when human beings make good relations with nature, both of them make a profit, and then they developed.
On the contrary, if human beings and nature just have antagonism and destruction between each other, there
is no doubt that they will be destroyed. Human beings and nature should cross a river in the same boat andhelp each other develop. Anyway, we have to receive this kind of education first of all when we try to establish
this kind of consciousness, to form this kind of ability.

* Former chairman, Tianjin Educational Scientific Research Institution, CHINA－41 －(1) Mentioned at “Basic National Policy”
The Chinese government in 1983 held a national environmental protection meeting. It was definitely
mentioned, “environmental protection is a basic national policy”. It also expounded that environmental
education plays an important role in the environmental protection cause. The National People’s Congress
held in 1989 adopted “Environmental Protection Law”, then went a step further to authorize the environment
protection’s position as a basic national policy. For the first time a national environmental education
meeting was held in 1992. The theme of this meeting was “Protect Environment on the basis of education”.
Environmental protection, in fact, the key to environmental protection is education. Environmental education
is a national policy while it is also a national condition.
(2) Stress Environmental Education from Moppet
According to the guidance of “Protect Environment on the Basis of Education”, at the meeting of national
environmental education that was held in 1992, we emphasized the need to strengthen environmental
education from four aspects. One of the important aspects is “Through environmental education inelementary school, junior high school and kindergarten, try to train and improve children and young
people’s consciousness of the environment.” There’s a necessity to stress environmental educational forchildren. Environmental education has been included in our nine-year’s compulsory education, and it has also
been brought into elementary and junior high school’s education program and teaching planning. A group of
middle school students wrote a letter to Premier Zhu Rongji in 1999. They mentioned that we have to stressenvironmental education for children, compile teaching material for environmental education, attachingimportance to forestation and so on. Premier Zhu Rongji made comments and said: “Junior high school 2year students concern themselves so much with environmental education, which made us elders ashamed.”
Some departments concerned were asked to adopt their suggestion. Our country’s basic education has beenreformed in the curriculum since 2000. On the standard of elementary school, junior high school and highschool’s curriculum and complacence of teaching material, they all lay emphasis on including the content ofenvironmental education.
Environmental education of elementary and junior high school has the widest cover, the strongest
prevention and it has greatly influenced one’s whole life. It has the special action that other environmental
protection measures can’t take the place of.

2. Enforcement of Environmental Education in Elementary School and Junior High School(1) Environmental Education’s Goal and Content in Elementary School and Junior High School
Now environmental education’s goal, the recognizance of content and operation are still at the stage ofexperimentation and exploration and we haven’t got the final conclusion. We listed the aspects below.
1. At first make students conscious of the environment and the value of the environment.
2. Master initial basic knowledge and technology of environmental science.
3. Train the correct environment emotion and moral behavior from the beginning.
4. Train student’s ability to participate and solve the problems.
5. Have the initial ability of estimation cope with the environment measure has been adopted.
Some schools make environmental education’s goal and content from the angle of psychology. Such as
knowledge, emotion, consciousness, behavior and so on.
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There are also some areas requiring “light green” training according to the elementary school’s
environmental education. Generally, middle schools carry out “middle green” training, emphasize the spreadof environmental consciousness, improvement and volunteer service. Some special schools keep the “deepgreen” as their aim, combine the knowledge of environmental protection, practice and responsibility, so it canreach the demonstration, radiation, movement, and demand of region in environmental protection.
By means of environmental education, students undergo a process which is non discipline 〜 other’s discipline 〜 self discipline 〜 self-consciousness. So their independence of will and originality have beendeveloped further.
(2). Environmental education’s Way and Method
When environmental education was organized at the beginning of the 1980s, the way and the method
were quite monotonous. The content of environmental protection has always been connected with homerooms.
As a result of twenty year’s practical exploration, environmental education emphasized synthetic study andsystematic education currently. It combined classroom instruction with extra-curricular activities; spread ofknowledge with the improvement of ability; rational recognize, emotional experience with practice; instructionin school with instruction out of school, total evaluation with different links and different stages of evaluation.
Bring in classroom instruction, research and investigation, extracurricular reading, actual practice,information exchanges, some activities have a main theme, regional activities, summary of experience, action
research, contests in school and so on. Environmental education can be conducted by means of such various
kinds of forms.
<1> Green Classroom- Bring Environmental Education into the Classroom
After long efforts, the construction which includes compulsory lessons, elective lessons, and activity
lessons “three green course” are being formed little by little. This construction that contains synthetic
education, will take effect in many different kinds of classes. It also guides students to do synthetic study.
Tinajin Shiyan NO.7 Middle School’s seventh grade takes “Water Resources” as the main content forenvironmental education. Teachers teach water’s physical properties in physics lessons; teach distributionof water resources in the world in geography lessons; teach the relations between water and life in biology
lessons; teach the method to investigate statistical data in math lessons. Teachers also teach students how towrite a report in Chinese lessons. Students and teachers jointly organize to investigate the situation of seas
and rivers. They went to Jixian Yuxiao reservoir and mountains to extract water in order to write research
reports. The eighth grade takes “Pollution Problem” as the main content and infiltrate it at all kinds ofteaching. Teachers guide students to take the synthetic study. For example, in history lessons, we know thatthe education at that penetrate with environmental protection laws. The Chinese traditional figure Xia Yu
used his own method to bring flooding disasters under control. The first environmental protection code in theworld called “Tian Lv” was finished in the Qin dynasty. And we also have “Tang Lv” since the Tang dynasty.
In the Song dynasty, planting trees in spring and protecting dams in summer was considered as common
sense. This kind of compulsory study is still being used at few schools as experimentation currently. For
example, set up the compulsory course like “Environmental Science Basis”. According to the statistics, almost
80% of middle schools in our country put environmental education in the school education and teaching
program. According to some imperfect statistics, there’re almost 50 kinds of editions which have been
compiled as teaching materials.
－43 －In addition, some outside reading is welcomed by middle school students. As newspapers we have “China
Environment Newspaper”, “Environmental Education”, “Earth Family”. As popular science books, we have
“General knowledge of Environmental Protection”, “Guide to Environmental Education”, “Shout to Green”
and so on. Especially, Jane van Lawick-Goodall’s “In the shadow of man” is really very popular. Some schools
and classes set up “Green books” as a special bookshelf. However, generally speaking, reading materials forenvironmental protection are still not enough and they can’t satisfy the reading demand of students.
<2> Activities with Green Themes
From both sides of basic knowledge, technology of environmental protection and modern environment
protection’s popular and important problems, we should select the theme of environmental education to guidestudents to a synthetic study center on one theme. The theme such as “Protect the earth’s lung-forest”, “Protect
biology’s diversification”, “Atmosphere and survival of human beings”, “The earth village is on the verge ofcrisis”, “Treasure the water of life”, “Green food and green consumption”, “Re-understanding China’s vastterritory and abundant resources”, “Environmental Protection and Development that can be continued” and soon. There are also some environmental protection activities, in which literary and artistic creations are held.
The song that names “the song of green team members” was also produced.
We have also developed some education activities according to the commemoration of the environment.
Such as “forestation Festival”, “The week of loving birds”, “World Environment Day”, “Ozone Day” etc...
In addition, lots of schools have a couple of green science and technology groups in order to protect theenvironment. They also have some mean themes. For instance, the working room of “Green Life”, researchgroup for environment protection chemistry”, the geography group concern themselves with world affairs andlove our country; the group for “survey of water quality”; the group for “noise testing”; the working station for
new sources of energy.
<3> Green Base Activities
Some schools and areas, which are in the lead of environmental education, have their own education base.
This kind of base activity has stabilization, systematism and substantial results of education.
Shanghai Caoyang NO.2 Middle School formed “room”, “field”, “river”, and “road” four green synthetic
synthetic study bases. “Room” is to build an environment protection laboratory about 100 square meters.
“Field” means a botanical garden in school; it contains lots of kinds of trees and more than 20,000 kinds offlowers. “river” is a river near the school. For more than 20 years students continue to investigate, extract,
analyze, write essays, take some measures of the pollution of river water’s quality, plants, soil and so on. “Road”
means the streets of the region that the school belongs to. As to the plants on the streets, car’s exhaust gas,
survival rate of vegetation, the influence of shops, they mentioned that different kinds of vegetation should beplanted because of the road’s different situation. They also participate in doing the activities to put the riverin order.
<4> Green Society Practice Activities
Society practice activities are important channels for carrying out environmental education. Its theessential space for students to close society and develop their personality. Through these kinds of activities,
students are endowed with the chance to contact the society and reality, to understand the environment, tosociety and reality, to understand the environment, to strengthen the consciousness of the environment andtheir ability of environmental protection will be increased also.
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First of all, the cooperation between school and region is important. To organize the environmental
community together, to give on the activities whose theme is “School, Family, Community-Our Green
Homeland in common.” Students take part in activities within their power like planting, protecting greenery,
beautifying the environment, administering pollution and so on. And also develop the activity that is related
to the contract “keep the green pledge and strive to be the green citizen. In the community, the students
delegates work as “Green Ambassador”, “Young Green Bodyguard”, “The sentry post for supervising theenvironment” to do some service. Some families also take part in these activities very positively. The help
each other and make some environmental under taking; the situation that school, family and community build
the environment net together has been formed. School, family and community’s activities have been realized.
It makes students who have the synthetic study prove the way to environmental education. It contains
realizing the mass of character, becoming a regular practice, knowing the system and scientific knowledge.
On the other hand, schools also organize many different kinds of social practice activities for students.
It’s useful for them to be close to nature, to be close to society, to study in the practice actively. It also helps
them to cultivate their character. After some activities such as summer camp of environmental protection,
doing some investigation by bicycle, students got lots of chances to understand nature. They wrote some
reports of their research and investigation. One student said with deep feeling, “If we fully recognized thenature, then we can understand ourselves much more.”<5> Green Science Research Activities
On the way of environmental education, guide students to made lots of kinds of science groups bythemselves and around some theme. Of course to imitate the science work person’s manner is very important.
In order to research the air’s quality, some group members went to different places to take snow on thesnowy day. Then they put them together to do the laboratory test, analyze them from both physical property
and chemical property. The final step is to compare them together, then complete the report.
In the activities of biology group, one student asked a question. There used to be a swallow living at his
house, but since he moved to a new clean house, he could never see the swallow there. He wanted to know
why. As everyone is interested in researching this problem, they made a theme that was “house’s outside
wall’s affect for swallow building nests”. Within 3 months they went to 359 houses to do the investigation,
research 97 swallows’ nests, read many data. At last, they got the result. Whether swallows can make a nest
or not is not related to whether the house is new or old, but depends on whether the wall is rough or not. It is
successful for students to learn some synthetic study through it.
Many science groups make lots of kinds of activities. For example, “the research of Tianjin wild animals”,“the investigation of main road’s vegetation pollution”, “danger of noise and exhaust gas”, “measure theamount of bacteria of disposable chopsticks”, “investigation of used battery’s environmental pollution”,“research of the effect on creatures from cigarette smoke” and so on. More than ten middle schools in Tianjin
have a good relationship with the Japan Community Education association, they cooperate to have theactivities of “nature classroom”.
By means of doing investigation, research, and practical activities like a young science work person,
students became to lead these things by themselves. Their logical minds will be improved through this kindof synthetic study. Their ability was trained scientifically and the synthetic ability was improved a lot.
<6> Green Management－45 －Environmental education needs the relevant organization in order to keep education under control andalways be held effective. With the support of the Chinese government, according to the lines of national
environmental education’s action, the activities of having an education appraise through comparison about“Green School” is held in many places in China. These activities have been held for 5 years, even now
there are 105 schools which have been evaluated as “Green School”. More than 5000 schools were given
commendations by prefectures and cities. This year we also had the national green school environmental
education meeting. More than1000 green schools and 10 thousand teachers took part in this meeting. It took
5 months to finish it and the commendation ceremony was held in Beijing. These activities play an importantrole in the development of environmental education.
With the support of government, environmental protection associations and young people anenvironmental science fans association was set up. Schools set up lots of kinds of groups, graduate
courses and the environmental education and then the education net is formed. Some schools developed
environmental education very well. They established seven “one”. They are one plan, one system, one base,
one teaching material, one series of activity, one team (teachers and students), one group of typical case”
A lot of cities set up environmental education web sites and many schools have their own environmental
education homepages. It strengthens the exchange of environmental education information not only in China
but also in other countries. It also promotes the development of environmental education little by little.

3. The Problem that Elementary School and Junior High School Environmental Education are
faced withEnvironmental education in elementary school and junior high school in our country started a little late.
The level of development in total is not so high. Especially, consciousness to protecting the environment islight; the environmental education in all places hasn’t been developed on all sides. Some students have very
heavy pressure of study, so it affects them to take part in the activities; the number of trained teachers ofenvironmental education is still very small. We still lack funds for environmental education.
The Chinese government is paying more attention to protect the environment. We made fifteen plans
for Chinese environment protection. We hope that with the support of the government, we can strengthen
the system building of environmental education; strengthen the teaching material building of environmental
education; strengthen the training of the teachers of environmental education; improve the fund ofenvironmental education, then the environmental education will be developed much more.
We hope our new generations will be the generations who have much more strong environmental
consciousness and can make some new contribution to the world’s environmental protection.

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