The “Programme d’Appui à la Promotion d’une Education pour la Gestion de l’Environnement” (ARPEGE) is a regional support programme for the promotion of education for the management of the environment. This project, which will last three years, is a pilot project established as part of the objectives of the cooperation between the European Union and the Indian Ocean islands. It was born of these islands’ desire to make the younger generation aware of the importance of protecting the environment and the natural resources of their countries.

This pilot project aims at meeting the request of schools by training teachers, and by providing them with pedagogic tools for activities. The pilot schools’ teachers will be supported by regional coordinators. The specific objectives of the project and the expected results are of diverse nature. They cover the stages of training, modelisation and testing of the pedagogic tools, and the presentation and evaluation of the programme.

The ARPEGE project has achieved its most important challenge which was to integrate a regional dimension to all its activities: the training program of regional coordinators and the seminars are shared out among all the countries; and the exchange of information among regional teachers has played an important part in the conception of pedagogic tools. The learning process initiated by the Project, with the help of the regional teachers, proves to be very positive as this date.

The selection of pilot schools and of teachers has been carried out in all the countries of the Indian Ocean. The teachers have then started to identify the “micro-projects” with their students. 65 pilot schools, as well as 170 teachers are supported in the context of the project, thanks to the contribution of 1,98 million Euros granted by the European Commission.

Most of the students targeted by ARPEGE have identified the prime environmental problems in their schools and their surroundings, with the help of their teachers. I would like to congratulate the involvement of the students and teachers in the ARPEGE project, and encourage them to go on with their excellent work. These environmental problems mainly relate to “the grounds” (erosion and the preservation of the coastal land…), “the water” (upkeep of the wells, drainage of waste water…), and “the wastes” (collection and sorting out of garbage).Once the themes were identified, they were documented by 2 types of data sheets: “Documentary evidence data sheets” providing information related to the themes (that should be linked to the elements of the programme) and “activity data sheets” to carry out simple experiments (such as composting, water analysis kits, etc…)

The project progressively achieves its objective: finding a common language with regard to environmental education, through the creation and production of a set of adapted pedagogic tools. This will enhance the development of the cooperation, and facilitate the exchanges between the Indian Ocean islands in a mutually beneficial context.

Now that the project has attained its cruising speed, we should stress the importance of introducing environmental education in the academic curricula. In this line of thoughts, the Information Technology network of the ARPEGE project must be used to present the progress made by each island as well as the progress made in the region in terms of pedagogic tools’ development.