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VI. INFORMATION AND TRAINING
[ VI-A | IV-B | VI-C ]
C. Effectiveness of measures for information and training
Since Nepal is still in the stage of institution building, the effectiveness of measures for information and training is too early to assess. However, the initial indications from the public information programme and the environmental education programme are positive. As far back as 1992, the external evaluation of the National Conservation Strategy Implementation Project noted that: "IUCN has substantially contributed to the promotion of environmental journalism in Nepal through providing materials for producing the NCS Newsletter, providing handbooks, and training of journalists (National Planning Commission/World Conservation Union, 1991b). Significant progress has also been made in the public awareness programme. An audio-visual programme is reaching a large section of the population. Billboards, posters and newsletters are being extensively used, and street theatre programmes are becoming quite popular. The impact of such initiatives is gradually being felt.
On the environmental education side, the programme for introducing environmental subjects in formal education is proceeding as planned. By 1998 all the schools in the country will have fully integrated the subject, including teachers’ training. The impact of the programme can be seen through some observations on the progress of the programme. "Pilot school teachers in all districts asserted that as a result of their involvement in the experimental programme, their own knowledge and perception of the natural and cultural environment had increased significantly". According to the External Evaluation of the National Conservation Strategy Implementation Project,progress and achievements of the formal education component of the environmental education programme are very satisfactory". Thus the programme is going well and its effectiveness can be expected to be felt within a few years.
In the non-formal environmental education sector, an external evaluation in 1996 reported that "the informal part of Environment Education has progressed as planned" (National Planning Commission/World Conservation Union, 1996). One interesting observation in that regard is worth quoting here: "A high school headmaster in Dang confessed that as a result of his son's participation in one of the environmental camps, he was compelled to install a smokeless oven in his house.
The challenge ahead is to maintain and enhance the motivation and enthusiasm of the personnel and agencies involved. Continuation of external support is essential to maintaining the tempo. With a national average literacy rate of 40 per cent, mass awareness of environmental problems and their causes, and the required measures for preventing and mitigating such problems, is quite low. Education is important in raising the general quality of life and in preparing a conscious and informed population. Only when the entire population becomes capable of understanding the basic environmental problems and their solutions can success be achieved by national policy and programmes aimed at improving environmental health.
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