After nine years of delivering environmental education to Jamaican teachers and students, the Schools' Environment Programme (SEP) faces immediate closure.

According to a release from the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), which administers the programme, SEP faces closure because of financial constraints.

SEP, the release said, has been implemented in more than 350 schools islandwide, training more than 600 teachers and over 350,000 students in the conservation and sustainable use of Jamaica's natural resources.

The release quoted, Diana McCaulay, chief executive of JET as saying "We rely on a mix of donor funding and a subvention from the Ministry of Education and Youth ... We just heard that the ministry can no longer support us."

"The closure of SEP would be a great loss to the schools. It is the only programme with a whole school approach. Also, the school is also a lot greener because of SEP and the students are very enthusiastic about doing the environmental projects," said Paulette Chedda, principal of St. Jago Cathedral Prep in St. Catherine, the National SEP Winner for 2005/6 and participating school since 2000.

Other benefits

Another principal, Jeffrey Campbell, at the Inverness Primary and Infant School in St. Ann emphasised the other benefits of SEP. She said, "We now have a better relationship with the community as students had to do community outreach projects as a requirement for SEP. They also take more pride in keeping their environment clean. Even my four- year-olds will complain if they see someone littering."

SEP has been scaled down from over 350 schools to just over 100 over the past two years because of funding constraints.

The programme focuses on four areas: managing garbage, greening of school grounds, environment club and environmental research.

Participating schools have to implement a project in each of these four areas, as well as involve the community in some aspect of the project. Biannual training workshops are also held islandwide for principals and teachers from all schools that have been a part of the programme since its inception in 1997.