Ting’ang’a Primary and Junior School, Kiambu Sub County has conducted a tree planting exercise as part of activities marking this year’s Mazingira Week.
Speaking to the Kenya News Agency, the school headteacher, Godfrey Gicheha said the exercise was aimed at teaching pupils the importance of environmental conservation and the role trees play in addressing climate change.
“What prompted me was the desire to change the climate of our country,” Gicheha said, adding that trees help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The pupils are being involved in the exercise as part of the school’s environmental conservation lessons, with each learner being expected to take care of a tree as it grows.
“The school will make a strategy so that the pupils will be the ones taking care of those trees,” Gicheha said, adding, “That’s why we are involving them so that they can take them as their project.”
The headteacher said the lessons also cover the benefits of trees to the surrounding environment, including provision of shade, while also contributing to rainfall and climate regulation.
“The school is teaching the children on environmental conservation that the trees bring rain, they change the climate in our area, besides providing shade when we are outside there,” he said.
The activity is being held during Mazingira Week, which runs from October 5 to 10, and is part of Kenya’s 15-billion-tree initiative, aimed at increasing the country’s tree cover to 30 per cent by 2032.
In Kiambu, schools are among the sites identified for tree-growing activities during the week, with emphasis on caring for and monitoring trees after planting.
At Ting’ang’a, pupils whose trees eventually grow to their height will be rewarded, giving them an additional incentive to take a keen interest in trees as explained by the headteacher.
One of the pupils said the exercise had helped them understand the wider importance of environmental conservation.
“I have learnt that taking care of the environment can help us have a better place to live and protect us from the effects of climate change,” the pupil said.
The trees will now become part of the school environment, giving the pupils a lasting reminder of the lessons learnt during the Mazingira Week.
by Annrita Mutembei and Grace Naishoo
