Supporting education to foster long-term biodiversity protection:
Building quality primary schools in landscapes with high conservation value. Where communities have collaborated with CHILDREN CONSERVATIONISTS PROGRAMME to minimize threats like habitat loss and bushmeat hunting, for example, CCP’s Classrom Africa program builds new primary school facilities in return for their conservation commitment.
The program brings high-quality education to some of Africa’s most remote villages, boosting student enrollment and performance, as well as teacher morale. Over the years, biodiversity-rich landscapes with a Classroom Africa school have recorded a reduction in the unsustainable use of natural resources and landclearance.
Villagers even helped construct the Classroom Africa School deep in the indigenous forests of Kenya, where unplanned land conversion for agriculture is shrinking wildlife habitats and the bush meat trade drives illegal hunting.
Apart from boosting the enrollment rate of students - who come from five villages in a 23-kilometer radius - performance has also improved since TIWCF began supporting the school, with 95% passing their primary school exit exams marking the school’s highest rate yet.
Embedding conservation and environmental education into learning activities. In addition to the upgrading and rebuilding school facilities, TIWCF Classroom Africa program ensures that students receive a well-rounded education that also fosters conservation. Teachers are trained to deliver learning activities, both inside and outside the classroom, that build student awareness of their immediate environment as well as wide conservation issues. Regular filed trips into the national parks and reverves that they live next to but rarely visit afford learners firsthand knowledge in the value of protecting their wildlife resources.
Since Classroom Africa introduced conservation education, the students even concentrate of conservation oriented activities like making eco-friendly crafts etc.
Attracting the best teachers.
Like top schools,the brightest schoolteachers also tend to be located in urban areas. To change the paradigm, TIWCF is committed to attracting star teachers by building school-adjacent teacher housing.
We also offer continuing education and professional development opportunities, as well as access to technology to ensure that both teachers and students benefit from the latest tools and techniques in education.