On May 28th to 31st an international seminar and a work meeting of SPARE project coordinators took place in Minsk. Participants were representatives of SPARE organizations from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Macedonia, Norway, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and project partners from Belarus. The opening was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Resources, Environmental University named after Sakharov and the rector of the University n.a. Sakharov Semen Petrovich Kundas.
The first day of the workshop was held at the International Education Center which was built 15 years ago with the use of the most up to that date energy saving technologies. For the first time in Belarus glazing units were applied, glassed-in facade was facing south that allowed to keep the temperature in the corridors at about 160C without heaters even in winters.
Over the past year new partners from the public sector, business and other NGOs have been found in many countries. New schools have joined the project. Teacher seminars, conferences, school actions and festivals have been held. Practical projects on energy saving and renewable energy in partnership with the municipalities were carried out.
A large part of the meeting was dedicated to the integration of SPARE project in state education systems. There is a working cooperation with the Office of Education in Dushanbe (information support, assistance in conducting competitions) in Tajikistan. Seminars are held together with the state educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan. Public organization BIOM is supported for the installation of solar collectors and other energy saving equipment, in lobbying for national energy policy. The components of renewable energy and sustainable resource use are included in the school curriculum in 2010.
Textbook for energy conservation is officially recognized for teaching in schools in Georgia. SPARE representatives work on standards and methodology. SPARE school teachers participate in the editing of textbooks on physics and geography.
SPARE project was approved by the Ministry of Education on the 20.10.2009, supported by the Ministry of Environment and approved for distribution in Bulgaria.
The Ministry of Education provides organizational assistance in conducting seminars, trainings and SPARE competition in Moldova. It gave a recommendation on the application of national SPARE textbook and a package of materials as a textbook for the program Educaţia ecologică. The Ministry of Education also gave a review of teaching and methodical SPARE package for schools where the language of instruction is Romanian.
In Russia SPARE organizations work with regional teacher retraining institutes. Regional governments (education committees, committees for nature and environment protection) provide support for the SPARE competition.
The workshop participants visited environmental school № 17 in Minsk, got acquainted with examples of green technologies, visited a straw house with solar photo panels, and a building that was constructed based on energy-efficient technologies, which is recommended as a model for construction in Belarus.
The final part of the seminar was the summing up of the international competition of school projects «Energy and the environment». The winners were 18 projects from 11 countries.
