The Environment Protection and Development Authority in Ras Al Khaimah announced that 8 schools won the Student Environmental Protection Teams Award in its third session for the year 2020, as the Authority received 36 entries in the award for the schools and individual participations categories, and the authority has launched this award since 2017 in partnership with the Ministry of Education In support of the vision of the UAE National Agenda 2021 in achieving sustainable development and achieving the development vision of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah 2030 and its strategic directions under the axis of sustainability.

The issue of environmental protection and the sustainability of natural resources enjoys all the support of His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the Federation, Ruler of the Emirate - may God protect him, and the Authority’s initiatives and projects are also supervised and monitored by His Highness Sheikh Muhammad bin Saud Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council.

Dr. Saif Muhammad Al-Ghais, Director General of the Environment Protection and Development Authority, stated that the schools participating in the third session of the award, in their two main categories, totaled 23 schools, and the number of students participating in the student environmental protection teams reached 447 students, and the authority contributed to providing them with a unified environmental dress. It also provided 500 local trees, free of charge, at the request of the administrations of the participating schools.
Dr. Saif Al-Ghais added that the outputs of the environmental protection teams participating in the award for this year were distinguished by diversity and richness, as the number of environmental events that were organized reached nearly 90 various environmental activities in various fields such as energy conservation, biological and biological diversity, increasing the green area and the importance of local trees and restoring Recycling and food security, as the total number of local trees that were planted in schools or in their external surroundings and within the local community reached 1672 local trees (Al Ghaf, Sidr Al Samar, and Palms) that were planted through afforestation campaigns in the participating schools, and the total number of innovations 54 environmental innovations contribute to solving some environmental problems, and the teams organized 30 internal environmental competitions for students, and 39 environmental ceremonies to celebrate various global and local environmental events.

The total number of awareness campaigns that were organized reached 45 awareness campaigns that included various environmental axes such as campaigns Cleaning and afforestation, energy conservation and recycling, and the teams removed 55 damas trees due to their damage to the environment. The total number of environmental artworks that were submitted from various schools and used as a means to raise the level of environmental awareness and promote environmental culture among students amounted to approximately 25 environmental artistic works that included plays, songs, art exhibitions and the use of puppet theater, in addition to the success of most teams in the continuity of their activities during the third semester. Since last year during the distance education period due to the Corona pandemic, environmental practices moved from schools to students' homes through planting local trees, recycling and implementing energy conservation initiatives.


Winning schools
Athan School for Basic Education - the first cycle - won the first place ever, followed by Kindergarten in second place at all, then in third place in all, Al Dhait School for Basic Education in the first cycle, while Athan School also won first place at the level of basic education. Khatt Secondary School for Boys won first place at the level of secondary education, and Al Mataf Kindergarten won first place at the kindergarten level. Based on the award criteria, the Azan school got the best school in implementing the planning and implementation standard, and the same school also got the best school in implementing the environmental awareness and education standard, and the Khat school got the best school in implementing the green patch promotion standard, and as for the standard for consumption rationalization Energy Bin Zaidoun School for Basic Education got the best school to implement this standard, and the Tunb School for Secondary Education for Boys won the best school in implementing the environmental innovation standard, and Al-Ula Kindergarten won the best school in applying the standard for continuous learning and development, and the Azan school again got the best school In implementing the results and impact criteria, and finally Al-Kharran Basic Education School got the best school in applying the media coverage standard.


Winning individual categories
As for individual participation, it falls under 4 categories, including the creation of an environmental cartoon character that promotes the environment and sustainable development, and the student Waad Muhammad from Al Hamham School won first place, and the short story category represents writing a short story that draws on the events of the reality in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, as the difference between The age stages of evaluating the participations in this category and the student Ghala Ahmed from Al-Wadi School won, and the individual participations contain the photography category to depict the features and aesthetics of the land and marine environment and its biological diversity, and was won by the student Shatha Muhammad Al-Mansouri from Julfar School, and finally, in the fourth category, the student won Abdullah Ahmad Al-Dhahouri from Al-Wadi School for his participation in a short environmental awareness film on an environmental issue in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.


Evaluation Criteria
Al-Ghais stressed that the evaluation process for the participating schools was based on several evaluation criteria, such as: the extent of planning and implementation, the clarity of the mechanism, objectives and processes of the programs carried out by the team, the initiatives and the environmental activities, and the degree of balance in the formation of the team in the age stages and grades is considered. As well as taking into account the level of environmental awareness and education through the number and type of environmental initiatives, campaigns and activities that have been implemented, the number of internal environmental competitions and the number of environmental events that have been celebrated.

The criterion for strengthening the green area comes to measure the area of the green area in the school and the number of local trees such as Al Ghaf, Sidr, Al Samar and others, which are planted inside and outside the school and to take care of them. The level of rationalization of electricity and water consumption is also measured by the extent of the existence of internal controls and practices that encourage rationalization in consumption. The level of environmental innovation is measured by the creativity of innovative ideas, projects and applications, their realism and their potential for development in the field of environmental work. And because the process of continuous learning and development is important in the evaluation process, the preparation and qualification of the team, the stakeholders and those in charge of it, and the number of scientific and practical workshops and benchmarking carried out by the team were taken into consideration.

Al-Ghais concluded his statement by saying: “The aim of the Student Environmental Protection Teams Award is to prepare a generation that contributes to protecting the environment, preserving its sustainability, and promoting innovation among student environmental teams in solving environmental problems and cooperating with schools in highlighting special contributions in preserving the environment and striving for excellence. And innovation, the award also provides a new approach to environmental awareness through the educational approach, which depends on the transfer of environmental awareness to schools and from there to various groups of the local community by encouraging them to raise the level of environmental awareness of the authority and their formation of awareness monitoring teams in each school in order to enhance the concept of environmental protection and the sustainability of its resources. It should be noted that the Student Environmental Protection Teams project won first place in the outstanding government project category, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, in the categories of the Government Excellence Award in Ras Al Khaimah for the year 2017.