Aga Khan bodies partner to develop environment, climate curriculum

AS the world suffers from the impact of global warming, the Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) of Tanzania has joined forces with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) to work on strengthening teaching and curriculum on environmental sustainability and climate resilience.

In realising this, teachers from the Aga Khan Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools in Dar es Salaam, accompanied by students representatives, worked together to build 60 ‘soil factories’ at the Aga Khan Schools’ Upanga campus.

The project reflected a strong public-private partnership through which soil factories were also built by students and teachers of Zanaki Secondary School, a neighbour of the Aga Khan Schools.

A press statement made available to the ‘Daily News’ stated that through instructions provided by AKF staff, teachers used recycled cardboard and paper, manure and earthworms to build soil factory units in large buckets.

“In these moist environments, earthworms will decompose any paper or food waste that teachers and students place in the containers. This biodegradation creates nutrient-rich outputs, including an organic dark brown soil known as humus,” the press statement reads in part.

This soil is full of important minerals and nitrogen, and is a critical part of plant growth and carbon absorption. Found naturally in healthy environments, humus is the key to organic life on earth.

Both the soil and drainage water can be used for gardening to help plants grow and eliminate the use of harmful chemical products.

Students and teachers will use this opportunity to connect with nature-based solutions for food cultivation, aligning with the shared mission of the Aga Khan Education Service, Tanzania and Aga Khan Foundation mission to promote climate-resilience in Tanzanian classrooms.

“From the lessons learned with the initial activity on February 13th, each teacher will work with their classrooms to build an additional 60 soil factories over the coming days – totaling 120 units, with two for each classroom,” the statement said.

This experiential learning will incorporate over one thousand students across the Aga Khan School and Zanaki Secondary School, Dar es Salaam.

This is the second recent collaboration between AKF of Tanzania and the Aga Khan Schools, following the establishment of a micro-forest at the Aga Khan Mzizima Secondary School on November 23rd, 2022.

During the previous event, AKF and AKES worked with Ismaili CIVIC to plant over 100 trees in a small plot to promote biodiversity and community-based climate action.

By working together, AKES, and AKF are demonstrating the transformative power of education to promote a bright future and are committed to future opportunities to bring together teachers and students to take part in experiential learning on climate resilience and environmental sustainability.