Sustainability

It has been said by Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary of CISCE: the council aims to build early awareness among children about the urgency of preserving nature and developing environment-friendly habits as a part of everyday life.

Starting with the 2026-27 academic year, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations will introduce a 15-hour module on “climate change and sustainability” for students of Classes VI to VIII.

The council also intends to create early awareness among children of the need to safeguard nature and to develop environment-friendly habits as part of daily life, said Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary at CISCE.

The CISCE has now introduced environmental science and environmental applications at ICSE and ISC levels respectively.

The council added that the growing urgency of the climate crisis requires a much stronger and more integrated approach.

In a circular sent to schools last week, it wrote: ".Environmental education has become increasingly critical in the face of the escalating environmental crises, and there is a need to build awareness towards sustainable and environment-friendly lifestyles among young Indians."

Unlike a standalone subject, the new climate module will be woven through existing lessons across the middle school curriculum as a "knowledge and skills module." This structure is meant to keep the learning less "content-heavy" and more practical.

The council said that environmental concepts would be integrated into subject-specific themes. For example, the number of endangered species could be linked to maths.

Emmanuel said environmental education must help children understand their surroundings, relate to them, and adapt to the ever-changing environmental conditions.

"Children should know that they have to protect and preserve nature, and it has to be a practice. They have to develop the habit of living together with nature. With awareness, an educated and empowered youth will protect the environment," he told Metro.

A circular to the school heads said that the move was an initiative to create “sensitisation as well as a deep connect to the concern of environmental protection amongst young learners.”

Ahead of the roll-out, the CISCE held a webinar on Monday to orient principals and teachers on the scope, relevance and implementation methods of the module.

Educators embraced the initiative.

"If we orient and empower children now, it will prepare them to act responsibly in the future," said Mousumi Saha, principal of National English School.

Many schools already have "green policies" where children participate in recycling and conservation activities.

Some of them recycle plastic bottles in order to make vertical gardens; others turn old newspapers into packets and ban the use of plastic on campus. A few schools have installed solar lighting. “We have installed solar panels on our roof and it has helped to reduce the electricity bill to one-fourth of what it used to be,” Saha said.

What instantly comes to the mind when we say "education"? For most of us, at least in K-12 conversations, the answer is "schools." Parents start searching based on board, fees, location, and peer groups.

Seldom does the search start with the more profound question: What do we want education to do? Stop and consider for a moment: education is far larger than mere schooling. It has to do with understanding the self, understanding the world, and building a life which fits into the world or sometimes helps reshape it. Schools should be a means to those ends and not the ends in themselves.

That distinction matters because institutions designed for a different time-period still carry significant ripple effects.

That design satisfied real needs of the time: safe places for children while adults worked, standard literacy and numeracy, pipelines into formal employment. But what worked in the last century doesn't necessarily work for today.

Two trends make this mismatch urgent: the nature of work and skills is shifting fast, as employers expect a large chunk of today's core skills to change within the coming decade, roughly two-fifths of the skills are likely to be transformed or become outdated by 2030.

Second, the "half-life" of many skills has been shortened: what took a decade to become old now loses strength in about four years in many fields. In other words, curricula built to last a generation risk producing adults trained for the past, not the world they will inherit.

There's also time: education works through long feedback loops. What we teach a child today usually shows its results 15-20 years later. That delay hides the cost of mistakes and rewards complacency. When a system is slow to show consequences, it is easy to keep on repeating these exam cycles, standardized metrics, and age-segregated cohorts without asking whether the map still matches the terrain.

I am not arguing that the schools should be phased out altogether; many schools do brilliant work. But we need to stop treating them as sacrosanct and unquestioned. When schools become equated with the definition of education, our imagination for alternatives narrows.

It's here the imagery of the garden/forest helps. Schools can be fabulous gardens- ordered, tended, lovely. Ecosystems survive on diversity; forests are a mess, interdependent, resilient. An education system designed for survival needs both.

Third spaces are those diverse, adventurous places taking risks schools often cannot. They are maker labs, museum workshops, peer mentor circles, community studios, and hybrid online-offline platforms where kids tinker, fail, iterate, build portfolios without the relentless pressure of marks.

Third spaces treat learning as a process, curiosity in motion rather than as an outcome to be measured by periodic exams. We already have openings. India's National Education Policy 2020 explicitly creates space for multiple pathways and non-formal modes of learning, an invitation to experiment beyond traditional classrooms.

On the ground, initiatives such as Atal Tinkering Labs build hands-on curiosity and design thinking in thousands of schools; MuSo-style spaces and other local makerspaces foster community projects and small ventures from prototypes. These examples illustrate how third-space ideas can be scaled up and linked with wider ecosystems.

Third spaces do more than supplement schools-they create healthy competition. When kids come back from these workshops curious, resourceful, and self-directed, that puts practical pressure on the schools to change.

That tension is generative, not oppositional: It drives the ecosystem to improve. Think of it like biodiversity: when many models coexist and iterate, the system as a whole grows stronger. Yet designing third spaces well takes intentionality. These would be safe, inclusive spaces with facilitators rather than lecturers, guiding inquiry, linked with local communities. Assessment of learning would be through portfolio evidence, peer review, and public showcases rather than standardized marks. But funders and policymakers must treat them as serious investments, not afterthoughts, and build pathways that let children easily move between school, community lab, and self-directed study without extra red tape or hurdles. We have to protect childhood. The present over-instrumentalised model trains children to be cogs, measured, bracketed, and ranked, often at the cost of curiosity, play, and agency. 

Childhood is not merely preparation for adulthood; in itself, it's a phase for exploration and wonder. Third spaces protect that room for play, failure, and sustained curiosity. What do we do practically? Start simple and serious. Fund third spaces with clarity and scale, not as soft charity projects. Give parents and communities real choices and wherewithal to support them. Finally, to start-ups in this space, adopt a posture of humility and iteration: if the pilot fails, learn fast and pivot; if it works, scale thoughtfully. Keep in schools their fundamental social role, while making space for more variety in how kids learn. Let schools be gardens again: tended, organized, alive. But let us also leave space for forests to flourish - untamed, hardy, and teeming with surprise. On a landscape that prizes curiosity no less than expertise, if we want kids who can manage ambiguity, we need both.

Flights from Delhi, too, had to be rescheduled on November 23 due to a volcanic eruption in Ethiopia. Alright, how does that make sense? A volcano erupts 4,000 kilometres away and flights in a few parts of India are put on hold or cancelled. The Hayli Gubbi volcano, which had lain dormant for several thousands of years, burst into life all of a sudden and threw volcanic ashes several kilometres into the atmosphere. The volcano is erupting for the first time, creating thick clouds of ash in the atmosphere. 

The DGCA urgently issued an advisory for airlines to avoid areas affected by a plume of volcanic ash from Ethiopia that, after a major eruption, swept across the Red Sea through Oman and Yemen and reached Delhi. It is moving at 100–120 km per hour while carrying ash, sulphur dioxide and tiny glass and rock fragments at elevations between 15,000 and 45,000 feet. Ash from the volcano has forced a number of flights to be cancelled, delayed and diverted across India. The aviation regulator advised airlines to "strictly avoid" areas affected by the volcanic ash. 

Experts, meanwhile, said though the extent of ash contamination is unknown, it was unlikely to affect air quality in the affected regions. How does this impact flights? Volcanic ash is a specific aviation hazard due to its abrasive nature that erodes critical aircraft components and blocks sensors, and eventually causes engine stalling or flaming out of the engine. Besides, for the jet engine to operate in an optimum condition, there has to be ample airflow and fuel combustion inside it. Volcanic ash can melt substances. 

Therefore, flights around regions across India were either cancelled or delayed to avoid possible engine failure and risk disrupting airflow. Ash clouds also carry a lot of toxic gases that can lead to severe harm to the cabin air quality, creating acute breathing problems for flyers. 

On Monday, the DGCA instructed airlines to avoid volcanic ash-affected areas and adjust flight operations accordingly. Airlines have to report any encounter with ash, related abnormalities in engines, or issues inside the cabin. If ash affects airport operations, operators are required to inspect the runways and taxiways; based on the outcome, there could be restrictions on operations until cleaning procedures are completed.

What began as yet another Gen Z–led outcry against Delhi’s suffocating air turned into a volatile political flashpoint on Sunday, after a small group of demonstrators at India Gate allegedly used chilli spray on police officers and held posters linked to Maoist figures.

For weeks, students and young professionals across the National Capital Region have been expressing alarm over the city’s “very poor” air quality — a crisis they say is stealing their future, hour by hour, breath by breath. 

A Protest Turns Red

What shocked authorities further was the presence of posters featuring Madvi Hidma, the Maoist commander killed in an encounter on November 18 in Andhra Pradesh. The visuals quickly circulated online, prompting senior political leaders to question the intent of the protest group.

“We requested them to move as ambulances were stuck behind them,” said Additional DCP Devesh Kumar Mahla. “They broke barricades, sat on the road, and during removal, used chilli spray on our personnel. Several officers were injured.”

Over 22 people were detained.

Gen Z’s Anger Hijacked?

Many of the young participants had originally come out to highlight what they called a “public health emergency.” With the Air Quality Index often hovering above 300, Delhi’s youth say they are experiencing everything from persistent headaches to breathlessness, anxiety, and disruption in daily life.

But Sunday’s events were quickly swallowed by political accusations.

BJP leaders accused the protesters of being “professional agitators” and even “urban Naxals.”

“They came to talk about pollution but had a polluted mind instead,” BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said. “Raising slogans for Hidma reveals their real intent.”

BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal called it a “pre-planned conspiracy” disguised as an environmental protest.

In contrast, Aam Aadmi Party leaders said the BJP-led Delhi government was using the incident to deflect focus from its own “inaction.”

“This is a national health emergency,” said AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar. “Instead of addressing pollution, the government is fixating on slogans. Why has not a single substantive step been taken in ten months?”

‘They Just Want to Breathe’

Even as political parties traded accusations, some leaders urged caution about making assumptions regarding the young demonstrators.

Chhattisgarh’s deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma said the youth “did not understand what they were referencing” and called for better civic education. “They need to learn how democracy functions,” he added.

Behind the noise, however, lies a broader truth: Delhi’s Gen Z is increasingly anxious, angry, and desperate. For many of them, pollution is not a seasonal inconvenience — it is a year-round fight for basic quality of life.

This generation has grown up with air purifiers in classrooms, odd-even traffic schemes, smog towers, and endless promises of clean air that never materialise. Their frustration is no longer quiet.

What unfolded at India Gate may have been messy, even misguided in parts, but it reflects a deeper sentiment running across the capital: the youngest citizens are losing patience, and losing faith, as toxic air continues to choke their future.

And unless governments respond with urgency, the red haze around Sunday’s protest may only be a sign of what is coming next.

Researchers from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, have developed a new environment-friendly process to manufacture black terracotta wares. The procedure merges traditional pottery with modern engineering and has finally been granted a patent.

The work was headed by Professor Swadesh Kumar Pratihar, Professor of Ceramic Engineering. The group consists of Mr. Shiv Kumar Verma, Senior Technical Assistant, and Dr. Rupesh Mandal, a research scholar at NIT Rourkela.

'Terracotta' in Italian means "baked earth." It has been part of the Indian craft traditions for several centuries.

Red terracotta is common and is produced by firing clay in the presence of air. Iron in the clay oxidises during firing, giving it the familiar red colour.

Black terracotta, on the other hand, has a shiny, mirror-like finish and requires totally different techniques.

For ages, black pottery has been produced all over India by slow and time-consuming processes. Nizamabad's black pottery is just one example from Uttar Pradesh.

A glaze prepared with local clay and organic matter called “kabiz” is applied by artisans. The surface is polished with mustard oil and fired in sealed vessels filled with cow dung, straw, and wood chips.

This finish stage requires skill, close supervision, and specialized clay.

There are similar traditions found elsewhere. In the village of Nixi in Tibet, red clay is combined with white sand and baked quartz.

After this, the pottery is smoked using sawdust to turn it black. Most of these methods take two days and rely on the burning of large amounts of organic fuel.

They also emit toxic gases which may be harmful to workers.

This is what the NIT Rourkela team wanted to address. The patented process reduces the firing time to less than seven hours; neither does it involve open fires nor any smoke is generated.

The new process also removes the need for rare clay types or highly skilled artisans.

According to Professor Pratihar, the trick lies in heating the pottery in a vacuum, where there is little or no air. During heating, carbon-rich oil breaks down and produces carbon monoxide and soot.

This creates the reducing atmosphere needed to produce the black colour without polluting the environment.

The method yields a uniform black finish. Application of the described method is possible in any region. It avoids health hazards, there is no burning of organic material, and it makes traditional knowledge compatible with modern manufacturing. The researchers say the process will support sustainable production while helping keep terracotta craftsmanship alive.

Sustainability is no longer constrained to classroom lessons or special projects as the idea of green living becomes a lived experience for students whose schools and universities reflect such an atmosphere of responsibility toward the planet.

Mrs. Rashmi Mittal, Pro-Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, says, "The educational institutions around the world now are realizing their key contribution towards the creation of a sustainable future. In this transforming scenario, campuses need to go beyond their existing role and act as models for an eco-friendly life by creating facilities and practices which directly contribute to attaining United Nations SDGs." The integration of green infrastructure with responsible practices is fast becoming the core of educational development.

The mission at Lovely Professional University in translating broad SDG pillars into tangible, on-ground action encompasses the following: large-scale solar capacity and rainwater harvesting systems contribute directly to global goals related to clean energy and water; waste management is done through in-house sewage treatment plants, on-site segregation, composting; and lush campuses with thousands of trees are symbolic of a commitment toward sustainable communities and life on land. Further, electric vehicles and bicycles being made available for daily commuting reduce the carbon footprints and hence present greener modes of transport for the students and staff.

While this is not a completed project, it is an expanding ethos. The idea is to embed sustainability right at the heart of campus life, so that it becomes intuitive and instinctive in the daily experience. This collective effort and goal-oriented integration is one which educational institutes and organizations can take up for making our planet more livable and 'smart' in the true sense for future generations. Be it large-scale universities or grassroots educational foundations, the story remains the same: campuses need to set examples in terms of sustainability practices if their students are to pick up values concerning environmental responsibilities.

 They build environments that teach by example. Students don't just hear about climate change; they witness how solar panels power energy, grasp how recycling preserves the future of our resources, and feel how trees cool the air. These lived experiences often last longer than remembered lessons. The push toward green campuses is not about reducing carbon footprints or ticking compliance boxes; rather, it is to do with the shaping of a world view for the future generations.