Draft guidelines for green study for undergrads released

CHENNAI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released draft guidelines and curriculum frameworks for environment education at the Undergraduate level. It said that the guidelines were an outcome of the UGC’s initiative to implement the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP).

The UGC added that the NEP underlines the importance of making environment education an integral part of curricula and encourages environmental awareness and sensitivity towards conservation and sustainable development among students.

The document is expected to cater to students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and also includes topics to sensitise them about the country’s commitment toward achieving sustainable development goals. The curriculum includes areas such as climate change, pollution, waste management, sanitation, conservation of biological diversity, management of biological resources and biodiversity, forest and wildlife conservation, etc.

The topics in the syllabus will have humans and the environment, natural resources, and sustainable development, environmental issues: local, regional, and global, conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems, environmental pollution and health, climate change: impact, adaptation and mitigation, environmental management, environmental treaties, and legislation, case studies and fieldwork. “The course would have 4 credits. The education institutions can decide on their distribution that’d facilitate students to meet minimum credit requirements,” the UGC clarified.