Message from ESD Coordinator

Hello everyone, I am Pn Law Yee Chen from SMK Convent Pulau Tikus, Penang. Before I start, let me introduce my school. SMK Convent Pulau Tikus is located in Georgetown, Penang. We have 17 teachers, 3 staff and 99 students only. It's the smallest secondary school in Penang. Why? Becoz we will be closing by the end of next year, 2022. By then the school will be exactly 100 years old. My boss always says that since we are closing, we must end the school in glory and leave a legacy for others to learn from.

Let me begin about how I turned from Zero to Hero in the ESD programmes. In 2017, I was assigned to be the Coordinator for the school green projects in the Penang Green School Award that is organised by PGC and MBPP recycling competitions. Being a newbie I have no idea what it is all about. My boss said don't worry, you just assign each teacher a small project and collect their reports, compile them and send them. It sounded really easy. I started by collecting recycled items and selling them to the vendors. That was quite easy as I have many contacts and I went round to collect from my family and friends especially those who own business and have lots of carton boxes to donate. My mother was naturally against this idea of me - A Professional teacher turning into a part time garbage collector. Most of my weekends were sacrificed for this purpose. To me a leader must always be willing to sacrifice her time to make sure the programme will be successful. Later I started a campaign and waste collection bank books for our students to bring some recycled items daily. Money that we collected was used to buy soil, flower pots and some plants. I learned how to become an instant gardener. What little plants we have we grew more and more. In order to get more varieties I will exchange plants with my friends or teachers from other schools to get new species. We grew vegetables too.

I still remember at one time for our project my teacher and I went out to collect cow dung by the roadside at Batu Maung for our natural fertilizer project. It was so embarrassing when suddenly I saw my cousin sister riding by and she started screaming loudly “ Yee Chen very smelly, very smelly lah”. Not only have I lowered myself to be a garbage collector now I am also a cow dung collector too.

As the closing date drew nearer I was so frightened. Except for my own project, other projects have not started yet as teachers are busy creatures, they are busy planning, teaching and marking. Here I learned that we must push and run after them for reports. Getting them on board in the beginning is really hard. Most of the time I will have to get students to help out, involve them and train them to take over those projects. Identifying student leaders who are responsible, those who are committed and willing to stayback and help is one of the keys to succeed.

That year we managed to get fourth place in the Penang Green School Award. We also won 3rd prize in the National Level Energy Efficiency Challenge in 2017. We continued adding our projects and the next year we clinched the title of Champion in Penang Island and later State Champion in Penang Green School Award and also Champion in MBPP recycling competition continuously for two years. After that we continued the green effort and became State Champion in PERKISS, Champion in category for two years in Water Vision a National level competition, runner -Up in National Level Sekolah Lestari Competition.

I am happy I took up the challenge of being the coordinator of green projects in my school because I actually fell in love with my school. I have learnt that until you are involved in the greening of your school you will never appreciate the beauty and the surrounding of the school. For 12 years I have been teaching in SMK Convent Pulau Tikus. Never once have I ever walked round the compound of the whole school. I came, I taught and I left. But now I know every nook and cranny, I have surveyed every corner to build my gardens, every single plot of land is filled with our plants and fruit trees.

Some people say “Winning is not everything “ but to me winning is everything. Most of our teachers and students embrace all our winning. They became more positive and willing to help and wanting to be involved. They took pride in keeping the school clean and green because we are the Champion. Especially when we are told that a panel of judges is coming to visit our school, you will see teachers busy as bees getting their students to help with cleaning all our gardens, weeding the grass, labeling all the plants and adding more innovations to beautify their gardens. Students and teachers will work hand in hand to prepare food harvested from our garden for the panel of judges. Once the teachers are on board everything is possible and miracles will happen.

As we gained expertise in ESD, our fame also brought us more invitations. Our girls were invited to take part in the Young Environmental Leader Series in the year 2018, later we were invited to My x Change series, a dialogue led by Young Malaysian Students Leader in 2021 and Greensmith offered our girls to take part in a Green Smith launch internship program. All these opportunities were opened to us because of the ESD programmes. It suddenly occurred to me that we can actually create our own opportunities.

In the year 2019, we have reached our pinnacle and won almost all the local environmental competitions. I became so passionate towards the idea of continuing with our ESD programmes. I started looking for other international competitions to take part in. I got to know about the eco-schools programme through a website while searching for an international competition to take part in. After registration, I took the trouble to read up and learn about the 7 steps methodology making mistakes along the way. Looking for ways to fulfill all the criterias needed. Later I found two friends from other schools in the same quest for attaining green flags. Hours of discussions online guided and helped me, we collaborated and managed to carry out a public exhibition. Unfortunately, in Mac 2020, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the Government of Malaysia ordered a total lockdown followed by several movement control orders.This lockdown actually gave me more time to build my Eco-Schools website. One of the criteria was to have international benchmarking visits which we couldn't do during the pandemic. So I came up with the idea of having a virtual benchmarking to several schools in a WEBINAR. Within 18 months, in February 2021, we have successfully obtained our green flag award. We were so proud and happy, a small school like us with a mighty big dream. Our girls did well to answer most of the questions because they were involve every step of the way. Here I learned that we must always look at the brighter side of things and think out of the box so that we can overcome any obstacles.

I found out that there are only 13 Green Flags schools in Malaysia and only 2 of them are from Penang.So, I came up with the idea for our school to lead another 12 schools in Penang to become eco-schools in Penang. My boss supported the idea too as we will be leaving a legacy of 12 schools under us. This idea was supported by the Penang Education Department and funded by Unesco Malaysia and some from our school’s prize money.

How do we implement Green Flag criteria?

1.To take part in Eco-Schools Programme we need long term commitment. We must mentally and physically prepared to face all the challenges that will crop up, always thinking positively might help in this journey.

2.After we identify our target whether you are aiming for bronze, silver or green flag award, we can check on the criteria needed and source for the help. Getting teachers on board by assigning them certain tasks that are suitable for them or their skills. Collaborations with other schools can lighten our burden too.

3.Sometimes we will need financial support along the way such as buying soil, gardening pots, gardening tools, paint and painting tools, plants or seedlings. Turning trash into cash is the best solution as you are able to manage your waste and have a waste management project too.

4.Before we submit the report online, make sure we reach all the criteria needed. Planning is the key to success in all the programmes. Without proper planning, things will mess up and we might fail to achieve it.

5. Training students to take responsibility, to lead, to perform tasks, to deliver speeches and to maintain the cleanliness of the school and to love the school environment is a must.

6..Lastly, the commitment from all the parties involved is crucially important. This programme is not a one man show, it needs the commitment and cooperation from everyone.From the principal to the gardeners and cleaners. But we as the coordinator in this programme play a vital role in order to achieve our target.

How did we involve the whole school?

As we know, eco-schools programme is a whole school approach. So, somehow we need to involve certain people in certain programmes. In my school, we tried to involve every student in different activities. We have 34 students as a committee, we name them green squads. These are the student leaders who help to carry out the activities and as a TS25 school, we stress on the development of a holistic student. So they are always given a chance to organise, to plan, to run and to assist in every activity. Within 4 years of Green effort in my school, I can proudly say that our school has managed to sustain a green culture. Not only within school, the surrounding community also supports the ESD program by sending their recycled items to the school, swap plants with us, and buy harvested vegetables & fruits from us.

Next, how do we keep the team motivated?

I believe, as coordinators, you have faced some kinds of criticism from other teachers, they will criticize us for running projects. From my experience,one senior teacher remarked that I WAS PUTTING LICE ON MY HEAD. When everyone is relaxing and enjoying their school holiday, I was running all sorts of programmes. Even during the pandemic, I was planning and carrying out a series of competitions, programmes, webinars, workshops, etc. Sad, indeed it's very sad to hear all this cynical remarks. But in order to motivate others we must not let other people demotivate us. So, I always think in a positive way, focus on my objectives and stay deaf to any cynical remarks.

We must trust our students, empower them. You will be amazed by their performance. A small school like us, people hardly see us, so we are trying to organise our own programme. For example last year we organised an international webinar on eco schools programme and this year we passed this programme to SJKC union but remained as co organiser. This year we also organised an international poster competition named phostering. Only when we organise an event, our students can learn more by participating in the whole process. We guide them, train them and encourage them. From my experience, I really witnessed the development in my girls and the teachers too. Lastly, a celebration of success to appreciate the effort and to celebrate the achievements of the school will leave a good impact on everyone.

Lesson learned and adaptation

Before engaging in an ESD programme, I was engaged in a young enterprise programme. Both are totally different working procedures. However, both required everyone to work as a team. There is no lone ranger in this program. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. So, Planning is the key to success in everything we do. Other than that, in running this programme we need to collaborate and cooperate with many different parties. So we should never feel shy to ask. After every activity, post mortem is a must to help us to improve from previous experience and learn from our mistake so that we can be better in the future.

Impact

I couldn't agree more that the eco-schools programme is the best programme so far. It has create a great impact to our students, school, community, environment and to the earth eventually. The students that are directly involved in this programme gain lots of experience. Among them, they learn leadership skills, improve their language proficiency, learn soft skills, boost their confidence and self esteem, polish the talent in them, build relationship and entrepreneurship skills in them.

The most noticeable change in me, I became more confident and active in ESD programmes and you won't believe me if i tell you that I use to be a microphone shy and afraid of public speaking. I have also learn so much about writing paperwork, seeking approval from the Education Ministry and running programmes online and on live FB.

The most noticeable change in the school environment- The school became cleaner, greener and more sustainable. School community showed more interest in gardening, so to see the change in them is the highest satisfaction for me. Lastly, we want our school to end in glory and leave a legacy behind.

CPT might be small but we are mighty mice.

I end with our convent school motto - Simple in Virtue /Steadfast in Duty

From: Law Yee Chen

Eco-Schools Coordinator

ESD Programmes Coordinator

SMK Convent Pulau Tikus