The Environment Society of Oman’s (ESO) Green Schools competition is under way and 33 out of the 119 schools registered have been shortlisted to compete for the best eco-friendly project.  

The country-wide contest is supported by Veolia Oman, a leading global and regional resource management company, and Emily’s Garden, a memorial fund that has been set up by the Jewitt family in memory of their late daughter Emily who was passionate about the environment and actively supported change in her own school in Oman.  

The student-led teams have until April 2020 to work on their sustainable solutions for either energy, water or waste management, for the chance to win cash prizes. 

Jawaher al Ghafri, education coordinator at ESO, said, “Through the Green Schools initiative, we seek to contribute to the implementation of the goals set by the United Nations, which views education as the foundation for sustainable development. Part of our work is to teach young Omanis about pertinent environmental issues and to enable them to transfer this knowledge to tangible activities. We have received many impressive submissions so the competition is certainly going to be high, and we look forward to seeing the results next year.” 

Open to government school students from fifth to ninth grade, entrants came from across all of Oman’s nine regions and governorates. As part of the submission process, candidates had to fill out an evaluation form on the current status of their schools with regards to water, energy or waste and then determine an action plan on how they will reduce its impact at the school, as well as raise awareness within the wider community. Submissions were whittled down to 33 schools; 13 competing in the Waste Management category, 11 in the Water Management category and 9 in the Energy Management category.