ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to investigate the involvement of teachers and learners in Youth for Environment in Schools-Organization in San Rafael National High School, Schools Division of Iloilo during the school year 2022-2023. The results of the study revealed that teachers’ involvement includes the following activities: tree planting and nursery establishment, waste management, clean-up drive, Environmental Awareness, and Symposia and Trainings. Teachers involved themselves in coaching and mentoring the learners, integrating environmental concepts and principles in lessons, and implementing the mandated programs of YES-O. Learners involvement in Youth for Environment in Schools-Organization includes cleanliness promotion, waste management, and YES-O camp. They involved themselves as members, officers, and participants. Policies recommended include planning, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building activities, synchronization of co-curricular activities in schools.
Keywords: Involvement, Youth for Environment, Policy Recommendation
INTRODUCTION
The Department of Education's Center for Students and Co-Curricular Affairs (DepEd-CSCA) was given the responsibility of overseeing and organizing environmental initiatives, events, educational programs, and awareness campaigns for students in private as well as public educational institutions in compliance with the guidelines established forth in DepEd Order No. 52 s. 2011. The "Enhancing Environmental Education in both Public and Private Schools" project emphasizes the importance of environmental education. DepEd-CSCA is also in charge of planning, developing, and producing various relevant materials for the Youth for Environment in Schools program, including those for the application, enrollment, institution, and appraisal, supervision, and assessment procedures.
Every organism thrives in its optimum environment, highlighting the importance of protecting the environment to avoid negative effects. While nature can persist in its unaltered state, human interference has had a profound negative impact on many ecosystems. Maintaining a safe and sustainable environment is essential for the survival of life on our planet.
As a result, providing environmental education is essential for arming people with the information they need to advance sustainability. This includes interacting with the natural world, realizing how important it is for maintaining life, promoting thriving communities, comprehending the social effects of food production, and developing a keen awareness of the settings in which people live, work, and learn (Contreras, 2014).
There is a growing demand for an improved and persuasive way of imparting environmental education given the increasing ecological issues facing today's society. The significance of developing chances for extracurricular environmental learning has been underlined by local educational authorities.
The YES-O (Youth Environment in Schools Organization) is the first extracurricular environmental organization within the primary education sector that has received formal recognition, which is in line with this aim. With the use of this platform, students can take part in activities aimed at defending and maintaining the environment for the benefit of coming generations (Perez, 2019).
As a demographic, young people have particular environmental concerns and obligations. They are disproportionately affected by different environmental dangers and hazards, mostly because they get the effects of environmental issues that previous generations left behind.
Communities are significantly shaped by the educational sector, which is in charge of transferring knowledge to people. However, dealing with environmental issues has become a big concern for educators. There are many laws in place to protect the environment, but they haven't been put into practice very well. Young individual involvement, who make up a sizeable fraction of the world's populace, can aid in narrowing this implementation gap. With an emphasis on DepEd-mandated programs like the YES-O, this study intends to investigate how instructors and students participate in environmental activities within educational institutions. Gaining knowledge about their involvement and contributions to these projects is the purpose.
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