Peadar Clohessy
Ceist:38 Mr. Clohessy asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the educational projects for primary schools being organised by the Irish Energy Centre and funded under the EU's SAVE programme. [3760/95]
Written Answers - Educational Projects.
As part of a range of activities in the education area, one primary school project, the joint energy pilot for primary schools, is at present being funded under the EU's SAVE programme. The project partners are the Irish Energy Centre and the Department of Economic Development (Northern Ireland). The objective of this primary school project is the development and encouragement of energy awareness at primary school level.
The project focuses on energy use in the domestic and transport sectors and aims to instil in seven to nine year old pupils the knowledge that they are consumers of energy which provides heat, light and inorganic motive power; the production and use of such energy affects the environment, usually to its detriment; and their actions can reduce energy consumption and thereby minimise its detrimental impact on the environment.
The project is a cross-Border pilot project and involves 20 schools in Northern Ireland and 20 in the Republic. Although the project is still in its infancy, good working relationships have already been established between the appropriate authorities North and South.
The project will produce teaching aids with the emphasis on "learning by doing". Use of these teaching aids is scheduled to commence during 1995. The project will be assessed during the summer and autumn terms to establish the extent to which the pupils have absorbed the information and applied it at home. This latter point is seen as being particularly important as the project is also about changing and shaping attitudes.
In the longer term, it is intended that the teaching aids produced through the project will be available to every school in the island of Ireland.