The effectiveness of an environmental management system in selected South African primary schools
Abstract
Environmental management systems were designed to be used by industrial organisations. However, in
recent years, some educational institutions have implemented environmental management systems in
appropriate administrative frameworks. The existing literature does not adequately address environmental
management systems as tools for harmonising the environmental, social and economic realms of
education for sustainable development at primary schools. The aim of this paper is to report on research
into the effectiveness of environmental management systems in education for sustainable development
at 60 primary schools in four provinces of the Republic of South Africa over a period of two years. A
baseline survey and post-baseline surveys assessed the integration of water-, waste-, energy- and
garden-related characteristics into extra-curricular activities and into the strategic visions of schools
implementing environmental management systems. The data were evaluated using Cohen’s effect sizes
and Spearman’s correlation coefficients. The results show that an environmental management system is
helpful in education for sustainable development because changes in group knowledge, skills and actions
that are required to address environmental features were observed. Environmental characteristics were
integrated into extra-curricular school activities and into the strategic visions of the management of the
schools with varying levels of success. Systems that simultaneously considered environmental, social and
economic factors seemed to have been more successfully implemented than those focused only on
environmental and social considerations.
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