Sabah to boost Serasi scheme

By RUBEN SARIO

Newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is keen for all schools to become environmental-friendly places by adopting the Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar (Serasi) programme.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the programme would create more environmental awareness among students.

“We hope to meet with the State Education Director and discuss in which ways and means we can expand the programme and make it compulsory in all schools,” he said at SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin in Penampang recently.


Resourceful: Benschop (left) and Masidi admiring paper lamps shaped from discarded newspapers – a project by students of SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin in Kota Kinabalu recently.
Earlier, Masidi received an RM80,000 cheque from Shell Malaysia Gas and Power vice president Dick Benschop for the Serasi programme to run until next year.

The programme, aimed at spreading environmental awareness and protection among primary and secondary schools in Sabah, is now in its fifth year.

Serasi, an environmental education programme and an incentive scheme, is jointly organised by the state Environmental Protection Department, the Department of Environment, Forestry Department, Education Department, Science and Technology Unit, Shell Malaysia Gas and Power, the Environmental Action Committee and the Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre.

Apart from the funding by Shell Malaysia Gas & Power, the remaining cost of RM70,000 will be funded by the Environment Protection Department, Department of Environment and the Science and Technology Unit.

Sabah Education Department will fund the transportation and lodging costs of headmasters, principals and district education officers to attend Serasi workshops and roadshows throughout the state


Display: Students showing recyled products to Masidi (right) and Benschop.
Likewise, Sabah Forestry Department is bearing the total cost of its staff visiting more than 200 schools in the Second Level Evaluation.

Other Serasi organisers such as the Environmental Action Committee and Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre are actively assisting the implementation of Serasi in kind and expertise.

Benschop said that Shell was proud to support Serasi as it involved the promotion of environmental education in schools.

“We are very happy to see how the programme has grown over the last four years and the impact is has made on students,” said Benschop.

Shell planned to use the programme to educate teachers and students on issues such as climate change, he said.