GREEN Olympiad

TERI's belief that informed decision-making at every level of society is necessary to achieve the goal of sustainable development inspires the organisation's focus on reaching and expanding young minds. The effort to move participants through a transformative learning process - from knowledge, to awareness, to action - centres around a competitive quest. Specifically, having been prepared through the national curriculum, as well as supplemental materials available (for purchase) through the TERI website, participating students sit for an objective-type examination each September. Consisting of 100 questions, the test (available in English or Hindi) is designed to stimulate the students' ability to think critically about issues such as air and water pollution, environmentally friendly initiatives and practices, land and water resources, forests, oceans, wildlife, socio-economic aspects of natural resources, global climate change, and the roles youth can play in society to improve our environment. After the exam, the participants are permitted to take home the portion of the paper text on which the questions are listed; this is a strategy for enabling children to spark conversations with their families and friends - thereby spreading the message of critical environmental issues to a much wider cross-section of people.

Each year, when the GREEN Olympiad examination is over, the results are collated. Winners receive awards and recognition for their performance. This includes both individual prizes for the students and awards for the schools. Special merit certificates are also awarded by Ministry of Environment and Forests. In addition, 64 students from the top 32 schools are invited to participate in TERRAQUIZ, a multi-episode environment quiz programme for television. Telecast on Doordarshan's national network, the 13-episode show is interactive, with the rounds designed along the lines of a game show. This combination of fun and entertainment is enhanced by the tradition of a popular television personality anchoring the show each year (e.g., in 2007, Manpreet Brar, a well-known TV personality, model, and former Miss India, anchored the show). Each year, 7 teams from each of the 4 zones in India and one team from outside India answer questions based on topics of daily concern - local as well as global. According to TERI, "attractive audio-visuals impart a unique flavour to this quiz....Being an extremely effective medium to convey crisp messages in a short period of time, it contains an inherent element of knowledge and competition. Its unique structure questions and educates students and viewers simultaneously." The members of the winning team each year are crowned the "Hero Honda Green Ambassadors" for one year. This title confers on the winners a responsibility to undertake initiatives to spread awareness about environmental issues among students. In addition, the winners and runners-up of the first televised series (in 1999) were awarded study trips to the Andaman and Nicobar islands and Lakshadweep, respectively, by the President of India, during TERI's silver jubilee celebrations.

Environment, Education, Children.

Approximately 80,000 schoolchildren from over 1,400 schools across India and abroad, participated in GREEN Olympiad 2007.