Abu Dhabi: A delegation from the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) and the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD) visited the Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bangladesh Islamia School in Abu Dhabi to express their appreciation for its eco-friendly initiatives.
The school won the Zayed Future Energy Prize for the Global High Schools Asia category, which was announced on Tuesday as part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. The prize includes a monetary award of $100,000 (Dh367,204).
The visiting delegation to the school was headed by Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Adec director-general, and Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, EAD secretary-general.
The EAD, in collaboration with Adec, has been implementing the Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI) in public and private schools in Abu Dhabi emirate for three years. The initiative aims to help pupils and schools reduce their ecological footprint, and exposes pupils to environmental learning via field trips.
The initiative has also trained more than 600 public and private school teachers in Abu Dhabi in the past three years on topics such as biodiversity, water and climate change, and have helped them promote environmentally-friendly teaching techniques in their classrooms.
The Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bangladesh Islamia School is among 110 schools that chose to participate in the SSI.
During his visit, Dr Al Khaili lauded the school’s tremendous efforts in making the institution carbon neutral through a highly dedicated eco school club that eventually earned it the Zayed Future Energy Prize.
“The awarding of the globally prestigious Shaikh Zayed Future Energy Prize to one of our home-grown local schools is proof that the initiative is working,” Al Mubarak said.
