Enviroschools at Risk if Councils Don’t Dig Deep

21 October 2009

All councils in the Auckland region should dig into their coffers and find funding to cover a shortfall for the popular Enviroschools programme, says Auckland Regional Council Councillor Dianne Glenn.

Earlier this year the Enviroschools programme was affected when the Government cut all funding to the education for sustainability programmes from January 2010.

“North Shore City Council (NSCC) and Waitakere City Council (WCC) have already topped up their funding, and Manukau City Council (MCC) is actively discussing how it can support a funding increase. This is fantastic,” says Cr Glenn.

“The new money from these councils will ensure that schools in their areas are less affected by the national government funding cuts”, she says.

“However, schools in other council areas, in particular Auckland City Council (ACC) because it has the largest number of schools in the programme, should also seriously consider increasing their contribution. If those councils don’t then a large number of children will miss-out,” says Cr Glenn.

“This is a fantastic programme which encourages children, their schools and their families to think and act sustainably. For example students take action to save water and electricity, reduce waste, plant native trees and even grow their own vegetables at school.”

“In addition, students are encouraged to make decisions about how the Enviroschools programme is run in their school.”

“Enviroschools is really growing our next generation of leaders to become active citizens,” says Cr Glenn

“But without new funding from councils across the region new schools will not be able to join the programme” says Cr Glenn.

The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) which co-ordinates Enviroschools in the Auckland region has already agreed to contribute $74,000 for the next financial year. This funding pays for 54 schools to go through the programme which is about a third of all schools in the Auckland region which are currently in the programme. The ARC also funds three people to run the Enviroschools programme.

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