"S.E.E.D"
SCHOOLS ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

A Partnership Programme between:

The Novalis Institute, Abalimi Bezekhaya & Earthcare Education Aotearoa

From mid July until mid December 1998, S.E.E.D. piloted an innovative environmental education programme in the Cape Flats area The programme was jointly funding by : The New Zealand High Commission, the British High Commission, DANIDA (through The Novalis Institute's Whole School Development programme), The Green Trust and Old Mutual; with each funder covering different facets:

The programme operated in three phases.

(1) environmental education and empowerment, taking place in the classroom, with the school grounds as the learning environment

(2) a permaculture design of the school grounds, with input from pupils, teachers and parents

(3) implementation of the design, including indigenous gardens, food gardens, mini-nurseries, shade trees, water harvesting and plant nurseries. Culture underpins the entire programme, with traditional and original songs, poems, drama and stories.

The programme is being piloted at Bongolethu Community School, with S.E.E.D. resource personnel working with over 1000 pupils in all classes, from kindergarten to Grade 7. The team consists of three environmental educators from New Zealand, and an African cultural tutor (phase 1 & 2), and one environmental educator, a cultural tutor and horticulturist for the third phase.

The outcomes of the programme are:

• productive school grounds as an outdoor classroom
  
  
• a resource guidebook for the greening of Cape Flat schools
  
  
• a photographic collage of all the stages of the programme
  
  
• a folio of environmental education class sessions (under South Africa's new Curriculum 2005)
  
  
• a strategic plan for multiplication of the programme, including the training of teachers and further piloting in other schools.

  Underlying S.E.E.D. is a strategy for sustainable development:
  
  

• reconnecting people with the earth and nature;
  
  
• restoring the dignity in working with our hands as well as our minds;
  
  
• re-establishing the links between culture, agriculture and technology;
  
  
• dissolving the boundaries between the school and the community;
  
  
• teaching skills for self reliance;
  
  
• empowering people to be responsible caretakers of their environment.