Staff Reporter

Johnston (right) speaking, while Dodge looks on

THE American School of Doha (ASD) has joined the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA)’ EduCare project, which ensures that teachers and the administrative staff treat community service and environmental education as integral parts of the school’s activities, said Adam Dodge of ASD yesterday.
He was introducing the NESA’ EduCare project to the audience at a 2-day symposium being hosted by ASD, Rota and HSBC.
The NESA is a non-profit, voluntary association of more than 75 private and independent international schools in the Near East and South Asia, with a region that stretches from Libya, Greece and Egypt in the west, to Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the east.
Dodge, along with another ASD staffer, Mike Johnston and a dedicated team, who worked on the idea behind the educational tool, explained that the project seeks to be a “resource that empowers school communities to foster contextual learning of skills, knowledge and behaviour that encourages students to take action through environmental and community service projects.”
“Realising the importance of the subject of environment, a core group of 24 teachers representing K-12 (Kindergarton to Grade 12) became part of the ASD EduCare,” announced Mike Johnston of ASD, who was also present on the occasion.
According to Johnston and Dodge, their group is committed to realising three specific goals of embedding the environmental education and community service learning into the curriculum, creating and maintaining cleaner and greener school facilities and establishing partnerships with other local communities to foster action projects and service programmes.
“Many NESA schools share ASD’s EduCare goals and already provide opportunities for their students to make a positive contribution to the world around them,” said Dodge.
Participants at the Global Issues Network workshop at the Spring Educators Conference in Athens last April shared information and their enthusiasm for these initiatives.
“While many great programmes, clubs, projects, units of study and courses already exist they are often segregated from one another and are not part of the curriculum,” he remarked.
To further its goals, ASD EduCare has created a central resource. It has also created a NESA virtual school site as a way to gather, share and disseminate information.
“EduCare is already contacting and networking with many institutions within Doha to enrich the students’ experiences,” said Dodge, who added that the next step for EduCare is to gather a critical mass of schools in the region that feel they can commit themselves to help establish a NESA network.